How to give substance to the fleetingness of a perfume? How to illustrate the convergence of all ancestral paths, the crossroads of caravans laden with essences from all over the world, carrying the innumerable elements that make up a single drop? How to describe this immaterial drop which, before evaporating, unleashes myriads of emotions and dwells inside the heart? How to describe through a dress or an ethereal fabric, the song of the roots, the resins and the wood, the feast of flowers picked at dawn and the air that they perfume?
It all started with a trip to Grasse, a visit to the perfume museum, and the discovery of the vast universe of essences. On a wall, a fresco of the world map illustrating the origin of each flower, each plant extract - osmanthus from Japan, pine needles from Canada, sandalwood from India-, draws attention to the different territories, climates, civilizations and cultures which can intersect in the composition of a perfume. So many hands, so much work, so many communities, so many talents in a single bottle... From then on Georges Azzi and Assaad Osta saw in each perfume a choral masterpiece. The idea of this worldwide collaboration to obtain the most subtle, the most abstract product possible, obsesses these two lovers of nature. In the light of climate change, it also reassures them that if humanity can join hands to create beauty, it can also do so to save the earth.
As great lovers of the arts, passionate about civilizations and history, narrators at heart, Azzi and Osta have long dreamed of this collection dedicated to perfume. First attracted by the challenge of the materialization of the ineffable, for months on end, they leant together, with the beautiful connivance that is theirs, on what could be the shape and material of a dress that evokes spontaneously a wake, the lightness, the volatility and the pervasiveness of a fragrance. Added to this is the obsession with contributing to the protection of species which will result in the creation of feathers without feathers, fur without fur. Just as perfumery uses artifices to replace or refine rare essences, the designers pipe the organza and assemble it into moving ears of wheat on a ready-to-fly stole.
A swirl of tulle, gauze and silk organza invades the workshop, followed by a custom-made floral fabric, printed in 3D with verbena and patchouli. A new material looms up: raffia, a natural and renewable fiber in which is woven, inspired by the baskets and straw hats of the flower pickers, a corset inspired by the 1950s from which the embroidered flowers of a dress pour out. The raffia is also interpreted in embroidery and intertwined in belts. The designer duo, famous for their architectural structures and their solid geometries, here brilliantly engage in an exercise in transparency that is unusual for them. The precious ingredients of perfumery intersect in this collection where orange blossom, peach bud, patchouli, magnolia, fig, neroli or myrtle abound in poetical embroideries, to which are added subtle petals of fabric molded and water colored by hand. The tulle, cut into ribbons stitched together edge-to-edge in frills, combines the tactile and the volatile with an irresistible sensuality. Between a dress cut in the shape of a vase and an incredible mimosa ball shaped dress drawn from a cloud of tulle, you breathe with your eyes, you touch with your wings. The palette is as soft as the heart notes that linger on the skin when the brighter tones have evaporated. Three wedding dresses culminate in apotheosis in this 23-piece collection completed by a large cape in taffeta ribbons. One of them, whose skirt is embroidered with myrtle flowers, is made of tightened velvet ribbons and tulle speckled like a chalice. Another is embroidered with tuberose on Chantilly silk, under a layer of lace dotted with organza flowers and spangled with crystals. It goes with a bolero of ribboned tulle. The third wedding dress is the closest to the brand's signature sheath. Illuminated with a subtle sprinkling of sequins and embellished with organza feathers on the shoulders, it emerges from a veil entirely covered with raised flowers.
From this blend of natural simplicity and extreme sophistication emanates a quiet joy, a comfort that only the obviousness of beauty can provide.
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