Sometimes Magic Happens - Guerlain's Delphine Jelk At The Launch Of Patchouli Paris

Delphine Jelk next to her mood-board for Patchouli Paris — image: Persolaise

Perfume houses aren’t known for their loyalty to historical accuracy. Thankfully, most of them don’t take as many liberties with facts as, say, Creed do, but even the more conscientious brands aren’t averse to a bit of massaging of reality. A blurring of dates here — a convenient re-write of a creative story there. It’s all perfectly harmless, they say, because it helps weave the beautiful myths that their clients reportedly demand from them.

A relatively recent example of this sort of fudging is the tale of Guerlain’s La Petite Robe Noire. Many people will know the scent as the high-profile 2012 release, credited to Thierry Wasser and memorably advertised with some charming animation and Nancy Sinatra singing These Boots Are Made For Walkin’. But some will be aware that LPRN actually emerged a few years earlier and that its author was listed as a certain Delphine Jelk. Indeed, if memory serves, before the international launch of the Wasser-tweaked version in 2012, there was even a LPRN II.

Of course, since that time, Jelk’s career has become more closely linked with Guerlain — she’s officially been in-house there for ten years — so perhaps that’s why nobody seems to be splitting hairs about who did what when to the mega-successful little black dress. But it’s interesting that at the recent London launch of her Patchouli Paris — the latest addition to the high-end L’Art & La Matiere range — she started her presentation to the audience not by talking about the new scent, or some of her other recent creations (such as the superb Neroli Plein Sud, Habit Rouge - Rouge Prive or Nerolia Vetiver Harvest) but about the composition that gave Guerlain its most convincing hit of the century so far. Who knows — perhaps there is a part of her that wishes the annals of the house would be just a tiny bit more transparent about this particular chapter of its heritage.

Below are some thoughts she shared about Patchouli Paris, the development of her career and, of course, that cherry-flavoured dress.