Serge Lutens

In Serge Lutens’ story, talent and hard work were combined with fatalism. Due to poverty, he dropped out of school at the age of fourteen and began sweeping hair at the most prestigious hairdressing salon in the city of Lille. Within a week, the teenager had the chance (or challenge) to pick up a pair of scissors, which he used to transform a client’s long hair into an elegant bob. And this was in 1956. Young Serge got what he deserved for such liberties: fashionistas from Paris itself came to him for image makeovers.

In the 1960s, he was already creating the style and makeup for models on the covers of French Vogue. In the 1970s, he developed a makeup line for Dior from scratch. In the 1980s, he was responsible for Shiseido’s image. It was the owners of Shiseido who entrusted their art director with the creation of their first fragrance. The fact that he had no experience in perfumery did not bother them: the fragrance Nombre Noir is still among the top 100 to this day.

Since 1993, the storyteller Lutens has continued to compose his own stories. The tireless generator of ideas entrusts their implementation only to Christopher Sheldrake: from the first signature fragrance, the atypical oriental Ambre Sultan, to the floral-incense novelty La Religieuse.

It is the Serge Lutens brand that most people associate with the concept of niche perfumery. Monsieur Lutens shared his opinion on this matter with ELLE at the opening of the world’s second Serge Lutens boutique (Moscow, Neglinnaya, 14/1): “I invented the niche myself, and marketers took this concept and gave it the name “niche perfumery”. Over time, it lost its meaning, and now there is nothing that distinguishes the niche from others. To be honest, what interests me in fragrances is not an empty name, but self-expression: either you recognise yourself in a perfume, or you don’t.” Be that as it may, for more than 20 years Serge Lutens has remained exceptional and different from everyone else.