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March 12, 2016

ÇaFleureBon Modern Masterpieces: Thierry MUGLER Angel Eau de Parfum (Olivier Cresp) 1992

angel perfume 1992

Collage of Thierry Mugler Angel star shaped flacons

In 1992, fragrance history was made. Parfums Mugler released what would become one of the best-selling perfumes in the world. Bottled in star shaped flacon and filled with juice that reminds one of the Blue Fairy, Angel has created a wide wake. Not only in the Industry itself by way of  sales volume and numerous flankers, but as a polarizing scent people either love or hate.

star cafleurebon angel perfume thierry mugler

Star shaped lines on the palm

Legend has it that designer Thierry Mugler went to a fortune teller prior to becoming famous. She looked at his palm and noticed the lines made a star shape. She advised him that if he were to incorporate this shape in all his designs he would be world famous. He did as she advised him, and the rest is, well…history.

thierry mugler angel perfume 1992

The iconic Star shaped flacon of ANGEL EDP

Angel, has gone on to become Mugler’s most popular scents, and some say his flagship fragrance.  Adored and worn by women ranging from 15 year old High School girls to  women their mid-sixties and many men, Angel did something no other perfume (at that time) had done: it united the fruity floral and the oriental into something utterly unique-the modern gourmand.

Helena Christensen & Beverley Peele, Thierry Mugler Fall 1991

Helena Christensen & Beverley Peele, Thierry Mugler Fall 1991

Thierry Mugler was beyond fashion, he took glamour to the next level sublimating Divas from the past into future bombshells with fairy floss pink hairdos wrapped in sequins and feathers. So it’s no wonder when he decided to enter the perfume game he did it his own way. Inspiration comes from the past, Thierry’s first scented memories, his mother wrapped in vanillic swirls of Shalimar, the playground with aroma of candy floss and the cakes his granny used to bake for his birthday.

-Olivier Cresp of Firmenich Angel Ethyl Maltol molecule

Olivier Cresp and  the molecule ethyl maltol

After ten years of rejection, finally master perfumers Olivier Cresp accepted the challenge and composed a perfume that smelled like FOOD. Thierry Mugler Angel is a  pampering scent with an overdose of patchouli wrapped in an unusual amber accord based on ethyl maltol. The molecule itself smells of candy sugar, strawberry jam, caramel and chocolate and was around since the late 1960s to enhance flavor in food. 

Helena Christensen Thierry Mugler spring summer 1991

Helena Christensen Thierry Mugler spring summer 1991

 If we revisit this era in history there was tremendous turmoil. These years were  uncertain times when the Berlin Wall fell, world assets crumbled,  the spread of AIDS casting a shadow on sexuality in scents, and nearly every perfume house was playing it safe with fragrances that smelled like clean laundrymusks.  Ethy lmaltol was no miracle molecule fresh out of the lab but M. Cresp’s creativity using it as a key ingredient in Angel, and the groundbreaking signature birth to the first “gourmand.”

thierry-mugler_Angel_Estelle-Lefebure_1994 first ad

 The first ad for Angel featured Estelle Lefebure in1994 

I remember I didn’t like the cleansing wave of aquatics that were flooding the shelves in the early 1990s and still enjoyed my powerhouse chypres despite the fragrant wind already changing. I also did not understand Angel at that time… but apparently I wasn’t alone because it wasn’t immediately a big hit. Credit Mugler with staying with it because Angel slowly reshaped the olfactive landscape, consumer taste, continues to gain more and more fans and spawned countless imitations. Nowadays I admit I smell Angel from a different perspective.  We’ll never know if the fortune teller’s story belongs to reality or marketing, but the iconic star-shaped blue bottle designed by Mugler himself and still produced in France was truly a game changer in modern perfumery.

Ermano Picco, Contributor and Editor of La gardenia nell’ochiello and  Art Direction and Contributions: Michelyn Camen.

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7 Comments

  1. avatar Timea says:
    March 12, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    I have never tried the Thierry Mugler – Angel perfume, but everybody says that that is one of the most popular perfumes.

  2. avatar ringthing says:
    March 12, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    It took me ten years to come around to loving Angel. I prefer a couple flankers these days – Angel Cuir and Taste of Fragrance – but the original is gorgeous and I wear it when I want to feel powerful and in charge 🙂

  3. avatar Janet says:
    March 12, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    I hadn’t known much about Angel other than I love it! Thanks for the history especially about him going to a fortune teller and seeing a star. Loved the fashion photos of the cotton candy color dresses too

  4. avatar fazalcheema says:
    March 12, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    I must admit I don’t count myself among the greatest fans of Angel but I still have it in an extrait formula because it is one of the legends of the 20th century, along with Opium and Poison etc.

  5. avatar Nancy says:
    March 12, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    Great article on Angel. I like some of the flankers better but it is a patchouli monster and so distinct.
    I liked the fortune teller seeing stars in Thiery Muglers future
    It’s odd because it doesn’t smell as sweet these days compared to Bon Bon

  6. avatar Maya says:
    March 13, 2016 at 11:45 am

    I was at a farmer’s one summer and a woman near me was wearing an amazing perfume. I asked her what it was and she said it was a new perfume called “Angel”. I have owned and worn and truly enjoyed Angel since then. As lovely as it is on me, it was never as spectacular as it was on this woman.

  7. avatar RinB says:
    March 14, 2016 at 7:47 pm

    I’m afraid I haven’t really gotten along with Angel up to now, but I can appreciate what a milestone it was/is in perfume history. Perhaps I should give it another try…

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