Bubbles. Streams of bubbles – luminous and fairy-like -swirled in flickers of dancing light in the usually dignified and bubble-free air of Bergdorf Goodman. Was it Glinda, the Good Witch, about to emerge from her bubble-chariot? Oh, but no. It was a party to welcome master perfumer, Francis Kurkdjian, and his new Parisienne fragrance collection, to the store, where it’s exclusive in New York. And the bubbles? Redolent of Pear, Cold Mint and Cut Herbs, Kurkdjian created the scented ‘Bulles d’Agathe’ for his 6 year old niece, though the party’s guests, in a playground frame of mind, seemed to be as enchanted as any child might be.

Eager to know more about this remarkably gifted and skilled young man - “perhaps”, as one editor wrote, “Paris’s most daring young nose”, The Fragrance Foundation caught up with Francis Kurkdjian, whose career is one of many and various, extraordinary accomplishments, and we started with this:

We read that, for a festival in the fall of 2006, and for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes of the following two summers, you were called upon to fragrance the fountains at Versailles – how did that come about?
(For any of us unfamiliar with the history behind that project, during the reign of Louis XIV,court perfumers were called upon to heighten the festivity of the great parties and balls, at Versailles, by scenting the fountainsthere).

When I met my business partner, 7 years ago, he asked me to write down my creative wish list. Among other things was the scented fountain project. I explained the project and, during the Fall of 2006, was offered the opportunity to produce it.Then, I was invited to create olfactory installations the next summer. I had “carte blanche” and created not only the scent but also the set and sound design. (In 2005, in a similar confluence of history and creativity, the historian, Elisabeth de Feydeau, who was writing a biography of Marie Antoinette’s perfumer, Jean Louis Fargeon, wanted to understand the process of creating a made-to-order perfume for a specific client. She met with Kurkdjian who, with Marie Antoinette as the ‘client’, studied the ingredients and proportions of the period formulae and created Sillage de la Reine - a modern interpretation of that queen’s perfume.

Along with your extraordinary work in olfactive performance art, we know that you’ve created fragrances for Lanvin, Gaultier, Narciso Rodriguez and Dior, among others. Now that you have your own shop and your own fragrances, will you continue to create fragrances for others?
Of course I will keep working for other companies in collaboration with Takasago. This fall I have two fragrance launches: one for rapper Jay-Z, named Rocawear X; the other for the fashion and retail brand bebe. There’s also a new collaboration for Papier d’Arménie (candles and scented papers), as well as many other projects, and fragrance consultancies, for major industry players.

That said, what would be your most memorable fragrance experience?
By far my most memorable experience is the creation of Le Male. I was 25, fresh out of school. Today, fifteen years later, the recollection of the day I met Chantal Roos and got the brief, is still nailed in my memory. It brought so much to my career andto my life.

When was it that you actually decided to become a perfumer - did your background – or family history – influence your career choice? And once you had decided to become a perfumer, where did you train?
There was not even the shadow of a perfumer in my family.I grew up being curious about everything, and developed a love of handicrafts. After a short-lived career as a classical ballet dancer, I pursued fashion. Unfortunately, my pencil refused attempts at design! At age 14, I happened to read a piece about perfumers on the glossy pages of a French magazine (VSD). The article featured Jacques Polge’s Chanel, Jean Kerleo’s Jean Patou, Françoise Caron, Jean-Louis Sieuzac and Annick Goutal. It was a revelation, and at age 15, I realized that I would be a perfumer. My parents took me to ISIPCA, the perfumer school in Versailles, but, of course, I was too young, and the school director told me to come back with a master’s degree in chemistry. I attended ISIPCA from 1990 to 1992 andin 1993, I earned a Master in Marketing while an intern at Quest in Paris.

From a philosophical point of view, how would you describe yourself…nose, perfume creator, composer?
I guess I am a storyteller. I use scents to express what I feel. Maybe one day, I will use words or colors… right now, fragrance is my medium.

And do you think that creating a perfume is like creating a piece of music, a sculpture or a painting?
Vast debate… I believe that all creative processes are identical. First, you need an idea, and then you need to rely on your technique to achieve your idea. Each field, however, has its own rules.

In your work as a perfumer, what inspires you?
Anything can inspire me as long as it becomes the beginning of a story that I can translate into a fragrance.

For my own line, a trip to Lebanon inspired APOM, which is an acronym for A Piece Of Me. (This blend of orange flower and cedar is found in everything Kurkdjian, from candles to interior scents, because, as he says,“I think of fragrance as a piece of me.” Again, inspired by the Middle East and Europe, he has brought back incense papers in scents like patchouli-and-rose Lumière Noire (an oxymoron). And in trying to redefine freshness and cleanness, there’s the laundry wash, Aqua Universalis.) When I work for others, it is like acting. I need to be touched by the screenplay.

Is there a particular scent, or aroma, you dream of capturing in a perfume?
One of my concerns, when I create a fragrance, is to give it a sense of humanity… a breath. Like when you stare at classical Greek sculptures made of marble:you feel that they breathe.

Is there an ingredient – or raw material – that eludes you – that you haven’t yet mastered?
I am not a perfumer driven by raw materials.I consider them the tools you play with to achieve your goal. To me, raw ingredients are like words to a writer or colors to a painter.

When you create a fragrance, do you envision the bottle/package as well?
For the fragrances under my own name, I have full creative control and decide on all aspects of the project from the bottle to the visual to the names to the store display. When I work with a brand, it depends on the working relationship I have with the brand managers.

If you could create a fragrance for anyone in the world, who would that be…and why?
I am more and more eager to work on olfactory installations because they touch a wider audience.

What’s your own favorite smell – and why?
The smell of the neck of the person I love. It is like a refuge.

Among perfumers, do you have any role models and, if so, who would they be?
I admire the way Edmond Roudnitska tried to raise the art of perfume to a higher level.

And what perfumes, in your mind, are the great, all time classics?
Great classic perfumes, because they are reflections of their eras, may go out of fashion like any other fragrances .They “survive” through years, however, because they are the quintessence of a style. In that respect, I find Chanel N°5, Habanita by Molinard, Cool Water by Davidoff, Obsession by Calvin Klein and Eau d’Orange Verte by Hermès, among many others, very interesting.

On a universal business note, industry studies – and numbers - indicate that the ranks of “lapsed fragrance users” are growing each year. What do you think is the reason and what can be done to reverse this trend?
I hope the number of “lapsed fragrance users” is not proportional to the number of poor fragrance offers that have polluted the shelves!

Given the circumstances, what do you see as the major fragrance trends of the next few years?
Fragrance trends are like fashion trends: as soon as you mention them, they become passé! In the bigger picture, and on a more conceptual side, I see a new legitimacy in the return of in house perfumers such as François Demachy at LVMH, Jean Claude Ellenaat Hermès and Thierry Wasser at Guerlain.

Pursuant to that, what do you see as the major contribution of The Fragrance Foundation to the success and future of the industry?
The work of The Fragrance Foundation is so important in their constant reinforcement of the awareness of fragrance; in promoting the uses and pleasure of fragrance and living, according to my motto – a perfumed life 24/7 - and in sharing the vision of the industry with the public.

On a personal business note,how many fragrances are launching at Bergdorf and what has been the consumer response to your boutique there and the shop in Paris?
I opened the boutique two months ago in Paris, and so far, the response has been extremely positive. We have had amazing media coverage, and I have to thank the press for their support, not only in France, but throughout Europe. The Maison Francis Kurkdjian line is based on the motto ‘perfumed life 24/7’ - and built around four fragrance inspirations and four storieswhich can be experienced in candles, incense papers, perfumed leather bracelets, bubbles, home sprays, perfumed liquid detergents and fabric softeners.

And, of course, the full collection is available at Bergdorf Goodman.

What are your plans for the future? And do you think you’ll expand distribution of your fragrances beyond Bergdorf’s and/or will you open a Francis Kurkdjian boutique in the U.S.?
In the U.S., we are already at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills and in the Chicago Michigan Avenue store.When the time is right, Maison Francis Kurkdjian will open its own shop in the U.S. As far as the future is concerned, only the future can tell! (Smiles). I hope the future will mirror, in a positive way, the choices my dedicated team and I are making today.

Of course, like all wonderful stories of happily ever after, the storyof Francis Kurkdjian would begin with Once Upon A Time…

I was born and raised in a little town called Gournay-sur-Marne in the East suburbs of Paris, which is very far from Grasse! I grew up adored by my parents, the first generation of my family to be born in France, and by my maternal grandparents. My father worked for a big consulting firm, and my mother ran the household. My grandfather was a tailor and my grandmother helped him. I think my siblings and I were given the best my parents could afford. We went to school to be educated and we were surrounded by art, music and ballet as well as sports. I learned how to read music, play the piano and went to the ballet school. We learned skiing, sailing and playing rugby. It is quite impossible to describe the atmosphere of those years; my parents organized costume balls with friends, hosted parties with friends and their children. My parents have always respected my personal and professional choices. I still thank my parents for the education I received and for their support all these years.

And so when you were honored as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French minister of culture,what did that mean to you personally and to your family?
I felt very happy for my parents and thought about my grandparents who had survived the Armenian genocidein 1915, and, in the 1920s, decided to live in France; a country they always considered a country of freedom. Now, for me to be honored by France, as a contributor to French culture, is an honor that, as émigrés to this country, they would have thought totally unthinkable!