number 46 may 2012 • 5

Guerlainêtre

1912. l’Heure Bleue

[ The 10 creations that epitomise our Maison ]

In late afternoon in the summer of 1911, Jacques Guerlain was walking along the banks of the River Seine. It was between daylight and dusk, the hum of Paris had lessened and the air was filled with the fragrance of flow-ers. The entire sky took on a particular shade of blue, darker than the usual sky blue. “I was smitten with a feeling so intense that I could only express it with a perfume”, he said. And this sentimental perfume could only have one, poetic, intriguing name : L’Heure Bleue (the “blue hour”).

It was the Belle Epoque. A period of peace and growth, fostering the development of an abundant artistic scene. Paris, a modern urban city, was the centre of this brilliant, carefree life. Yet the Belle Epoque was run-ning out of steam and nearing a close, the world was becoming crazy and war was rum-bling in the distance. Jacques Guerlain relates how he sensed this imminent catastrophe. “The sun had set but night had not yet fallen. It was the uncertain hour. In a light of the deepest blue, everything – the rustling of

leaves, the lapping of the Seine – seemed to express love, a caress and infinite tenderness. Man is suddenly in harmony with the tangible world, in a moment of time: the time of a perfume.” At the time, Jacques Guerlain had been a perfumer for over twenty years. He admired Impressionist painters and collected their works. In the same way as a succession of touches of colour vary according to the light on an Impressionist canvas, the olfactory notes of his perfumes play the bars of an unusual score of music on the skin.

Although he sensed the disorder invading the world, he wanted to pay glowing hom-age to his wife, Lily Guerlain, whose look and beauty fascinated him, and declare his passion with a unique perfume. Lily Guerlain wore L’Heure Bleue all her life, like an invisible signature, her aura.

L’Heure Bleue was the last romantic fer-vour of these dark times, the last peacetime perfume that sounded the death knell of a bygone era. Jacques Guerlain expressed his passion with this floral/oriental perfume.

Jacques Guerlain wanted to pay glowing homage to his wife, Lily Guerlain, whose look and beauty fascinated him, and declare his passion with a unique perfume.

number 46 may 2012 • 6

Guerlainêtre

Balanced and soft, L’Heure Bleue marries powdered notes of iris with gourmet notes of vanilla, musk, carnation and aniseed. This perfume with a very specific sensual smooth-ness, magnificently structured, was also the first Guerlain perfume to contain aldehydes. A complete paradox – tender and sensual, delicate and intense, controlled and lively, secret and flamboyant, all at the same time.

The bottle, one of the first produced with Jacques Chevalier at Baccarat, drew its inspi-ration from Art Nouveau. Its curved shoul-ders and commas cut in the glass come within this artistic movement, characterised by sinuous lines, not unlike the curves of a woman. Its “upside down heart” stopper is reminiscent of the sentimentalism of the turn of the century.

100 years later, the emotion is still intact. Prestigious limited editions are coming out

at Christmas to celebrate the anniversary of this prodigious perfume, one of the fin-est olfactory structures in the history of perfume : l’Heure Bleue “1912 -2012” and l’Heure Bleue “Centenary” by the Maisons Baccarat and Gripoix.

The emblematic l’Heure Bleue bottle, with a new, more modern look, will from now on contain the eminently Parisian fragrance, La Petite Robe Noire.

[ The 10 creations that epitomise our Maison ]