Commissions privées
9 rue de Varenne
Paris, September
Dear friend,
You have asked what a private commission is, and whether it is for you. Let me answer the second question first: probably not. We compose twelve a year, and most people who write to us would be better served by one of the seven extraits, worn for a week. That is not modesty; it is the truth of the thing.
A commission is for someone who has never found their smell in a bottle, and suspects it does not exist yet. It takes fourteen months because skin takes fourteen months to tell the truth. It costs what it costs because the materials are the ones we would otherwise keep for ourselves.
What follows is the protocol as we have practised it since 1931. It has not changed much. Neither, I hope, have we.
— Isaure Vauclair-Mendès
The commission room · a formula, before it is one
Le protocole
- I
L'Entretien
One afternoon
Three hours at rue de Varenne with Isaure. No questionnaire. We talk about rooms, weather, people, the smells you avoid. Nothing is smelled on the first day. - II
L'Esquisse
Months 1–4
Three sketches arrive by courier on blotters and on cloth. You wear each for a week and write to us. Most commissions choose the one they were sure they disliked.
- III
La Maturation
Months 5–12
The chosen sketch is composed in full and left to macerate in Grasse. It is corrected four times; each correction is worn by you before it is kept.
- IV
La Remise
Month 14
The formula is sealed in the archive under your name and no other. One flacon of 250 ml, engraved, and a book of the correspondence. Refills for life.
Conditions
Plainly.
- Places
- Twelve entretiens a year. The list for 2027 opens in January and is usually complete by March.
- Fee
- From €42,000, settled in three parts: at the entretien, at the chosen sketch, at the remise.
- Ownership
- The formula is yours. It is archived under your name and composed for no one else, during your lifetime or after.
- Refills
- 250 ml at the remise; refills of 50 ml thereafter, for life, at cost of materials.
- Discretion
- No commission is named, photographed or described by the maison. Ever.
Écrire à la maison
Tell us about a room.
Not about perfume. Describe a room you remember by its smell. A few lines is enough; we will write back within the month.
