ÇaFleureBon Behind the Bottle with Joseph Quartana of Six Scents Three + Dream Team “FiFi 2011” Draw

 

 

It has been a successful first half of 2011 for Joseph Quartana the mind behind Six Scents. Six Scents: Series Three just won the Fifi Award for “Best Indie Perfume”. His store Seven New York is one of SoHo’s most forward thinking boutiques. I wanted to find out more of how Mr. Quartana goes about bringing together the artists involved in Six Scents and his answers take us "Behind The Bottle" to learn how that happens; but first we wanted to know about what it felt like to win the FiFi Award.

 

 

Joseph, congratulations on the FiFi award. How did you feel having your name called?

JQ: Thanks very much. We were quite shocked to have won…basically I had flown 30 hours from Bali, Indonesia, to attend on our behalf, as my partner Kaya was in Berlin and tied up. Funny story, as we are a small company we couldn't even afford the $1,250 ticket to actually attend the festivities, so I had to settle for the cheaper $350 'garden' ticket. I was thinking, well, in the unlikely event that we do win, how am I going to accept the prize? So I expressed my concerns to the security guard, who felt bad for me, and let me into the actual event! When our category came up, I was filming it on my iPhone for our team to see, and when we were announced as the winner, I actually dropped my phone while recording! It was all so surreal, as again, I had just gotten off a 30 hour flight from the other side of the planet, so I was quite spaced out and shocked!

 

 

I cover Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week every season and I was struck by how prescient you are with the designers you chose for Series Three. Can you tell me how you go about finding the designers?

JQ: Well, I keep a few running lists of designers that would pair well together in my head, depending on what Kaya Sorhaindo is feeling for each successive Six Scents series we do, as he sets the overall theme. Those lists get constantly updated according to my research of said designers, what they are doing, what their shows look like, what the reactions are, etc. My main occupation is that of a fashion buyer of men’s and women’s wear for both my own boutique, Seven New York, as well as a Korean department store called Lotte, so i'm constantly keeping tabs on who's making an impact on the industry, who's new, who's influential, etc. So curating Six Scents is just an extension of what I’m doing anyway.

 

 

Which of course leads to the next question, how do you pair the perfumers with the designer?

JQ: After we finalize the designers, we brief Givaudan on the concept and who we've selected. The designers by then have filled out what we call perfume profile questionnaires, which we created; which basically outline the vision, the overall aesthetic, and the designer's personal fragrance preferences. Those get circulated among the entire roster of Givaudan's perfumers, and each perfumer then volunteers to do a fragrance with the designer that they are 'feeling'. This insures a very interesting final product.

 

 

No. 2 Trompe L’Oeil by Mary Katrantzou and Shyamala Maisondieu

Who is responsible for the brief for each of the fragrances is it a collaborative process or do the noses get to try and design by looking at the designer's style?

JQ: It all starts with the questionnaire. The perfumers then create a few initial samples and share them with the designers. The designers will nix some and ask that others be modified, the perfumer does another set, and this back and forth goes on until both the perfumer and designer are happy. Kaya and I don't get involved with the creative process; we want it to be purely between the designer and perfumer only!

 

 

Can you tease us with where you are in the process for Six Scents: Series Four?

JQ: All designers are selected, all perfume profile questionnaires filled out, all perfumers assigned, and the designers and perfumers are just beginning to meet with each other. In fact next week kaya and I will be in Paris overseeing and documenting the meetings between a few of them, so we'll be able to experience the first round of samples. I love this part, seeing what the perfumers come up with based on what the designers are envisioning! It's very exciting!

 

 

If you could create a fragrance for any designer throughout history who would it be?

JQ: My answer would be Raf Simons. Why? Because i don't like to look to the past, I prefer to look to the future, and Raf Simon's work epitomizes the future to me.

I want to thank Joseph Quartana for taking the time to answer my questions, He has gracefully agreed to supply a “Reader’s Choice” draw of one full bottle of the Six Scents: Series Three fragrance of their choice.

If you need some inspiration on your choice you can read my review of all the Series Three fragrances at this link.

To be eligible to win create your own Six Scents Dream Team of fashion designer and perfumer. Choose a perfumer you love and a cutting edge designer you love.. For an extra chance to win LIKE our Behind The Bottle: CaFleureBon Q&A Facebook page. Draw closes June 27, 2011.

PLEASE SPECIFY YOUR CHOICE of a 1.7 oz flacon BY CLICKING THE THE LINK ABOVE TO MARK'S REVIEW

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Editor's Note: Each year since its inception,in 2008, Six Scents chooses a charity and donates generously; this year it is Warchild. How did Joseph learn he was a Finalist for a Fragrance Foundation award?. He read it on CaFleureBon

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19 comments

  • This is a great explanation of how a designer and a perfumer combine a vision to capture an essence a memory a place in time and the feelings. Im enjoying the hnesty of that. I love the process. The questions and the samples and the stealing from the future talent aspect. The security guard upgrade was key.Soemoen needs to give that guy a high five for being a visionary too…he saw a FiFi winner and gave him an upgrade.
    My favorite part of the review was the ‘late night clubbing slightly sweaty skin’ reference…so true. To capture that is awesome.
    A very educational piece.I love reading CaFleurebon, it brings me to different places through each review. I miss New York more with every Fashion Week refernce.

  • Carlos Powell says:

    No. 2 Trompe L’Oeil by Mary Katrantzou and Shyamala Maisondieu sounds really nice! Great interview Mark.

  • Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs and Olivia Giacobbetti. A Dream Team. Thank you for entering me!

  • Carlos having sniffed the fragrance, that would be my pick. I love it and the whole concept of this independent boutique owner creating a collaboration between up and coming designers and having them work with master perfumers

    I know Joseph was surprised because he didn’t know he was nominated until he read my post on face book and saw his name. Mark is our true fashionista and his questions were insightful
    Joseph I hope you never again have to scrape up money like that especially since you give so much to charity.
    Staying with Givaudaun; Calice Becker and British designer Wayne Cooper would be my choice for series 4…
    PS I have written about Mary Katanzou who had a passion for perfume growing up in Greece and created dresses shaped like icon perfume bottles Shalimar the most recognizable
    My pic was the Jean Paul Gaultier bottle to show off curves it’s on our site

  • I’d love #2 Trompe L’Oeil — I love mimosa!

    My dream team is Alberta Ferretti and Ineke Rhuland 🙂 I think they would be able to create something wonderfully feminine and I’m sure I would enjoy it! 🙂

    Thanks for a very interesting article, I liked it on FB too.

  • I would love to try them all, but No. 2 Trompe L’Oeil by Mary Katrantzou and Shyamala Maisondieu sounds gorgeous to me. A great read this morning. Thanks!

  • you smell!!! says:

    I don’t know a thing about designers but I can tell you about a perfumer dream team that I’d love to see: Mark Buxton and Olivia Giacobetti doing one just for me 😛
    Of the series I’d love to win No 6 M by Ohne Titel and Yann Vasnier. Thanks!

  • I would defenitly love End/Begining.I must say I’m not into desig, but I do love the work of Yann Vasnier.

  • ElizabethN says:

    What fun! I would love to see Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte as designers and Liz Zorn and Dawn Spencer Hurwitz as the perfume duo! And I would love No 6/M if I win. :o)

  • sonia garcia says:

    I’d love to see Ann Demeulemeester work with Calice Becker! Hell of a collaboration there!!!
    Please enter my name and I’d love to win No6 M, thanks for another really cool draw.

  • taffynfontana says:

    I would love to see a collaboration with Derek Lam and Olivia Giacobetti both seem to have similar sensibilities and I am sure their creation would be magical. My choice would be No. 6 M by Ohne Titel.

  • Paul Kiler says:

    At the risk of sounding terribly conceited and pompous, I’d like myself to be the designer and the perfumer…

    And I’ll take M, if you so desire…

  • I think a collaboration between Gareth Pugh and Serge Lutens would be interesting. Lady Gaga would model the clothes.
    No 6 would be my choice if I win this very generous competition.

  • By Ohne Titel No. 6 – M perfumer Yann Vasnier would be my choice from the Six Scents Series 3 line up.
    If he was still alive i would have chosen Alexander McQueen and Pierre Guillaume to create a scent for me. Or i would love to pair up the talented Elie Tahari with Thierry Wasser to collaborate on a fragrance just for me. 🙂 A girl can dream…..

  • Most excellent, Mark!

    Love the concept! Well, it’s obvious that I need to make a subway trip down to Soho!

    No. 1 “Beau Bow” by Alexis Mabille and Rodrigo Flores-Roux is my choice.

  • Paul, I thought about being a designer too, and then I thought about my friend, she’s a designer, but not a fashion designer, so I went the other way. But you were not the only one thinking along those lines! 🙂

  • Ooh! Series One from SixScents was a bit of a miss for me, too much wispy wood-incense stuff, but Series Two and Three perfumes are a very interesting and varied lot ! I own a couple of bottles of S2 End/Beginning by Yann Vasnier and Damir Doma, and that is actually the best perfumer+designer dream team I can think of. If I had to change it up a little I’d hire Pierre Guillaume as the perfumer. If I win, I’d love a bottle of No. 6 – M by Yann Vasnier (surprise!) and Ohne Titel. I really seem to dig Yann Vasnier’s work with Bang, SixScents, DelRae etc. I really hope he continues to work with SixScents. PS. Liking the FB page, fingers crossed super tight!

  • I hope I’m not too late!

    For my dream team, it would include Raf Simons and Mathilde Laurent. Like Raf, it seems Mme. Laurent focuses on the future.

    For the scent I’d choose No. 6 M by Ohne Titel and Yann Vasnier.

    On a semi-related note, where can samples of series 3 be bought?