Twilight is descending as I enter the perfumed haven of London’s Jovoy Mayfair where, among the plush low-lit shelves, I spot an array of familiar high-end brands – Fragrance du Bois, Aftelier des Ors, Houbigant – but I resist temptation since this evening I’m retaining ‘clean skin’ as they say in the world of perfumery, for Matsukita by Clive Christian.
Clive Christian’s global brand manager, Tori Snowball, has curated tonight’s event at Jovoy, which features the launch of a new painting inspired by Matsukita. I am particularly interested in the fact that Clive Christian Perfumes decided to commission an artist to respond to the perfume in paint, but I’m almost equally intrigued by the fact that I’m about to experience one of the world’s most expensive perfumes (at around £325 per 50ml, a generous spritz on the wrist is worth quite a bit!).
Why did Clive Christian decide to commission an artist to respond to Matsukita? “It’s similar to the concept of synaesthesia,” Tori explains as she welcomes us into the space: “some people see colours when they read words, for example, or hear music when they smell perfume”.
“This is Matsukita,” Tori announces, gesturing me towards a small room where a film shows changing colours and Japanese art accompanied by a musical arrangement on Japanese lute (Shamisen). The scent of Matsukita surrounds me, so I close my eyes to focus on the perfume alone.
It’s gorgeous. Multi-faceted – deep, warm and sophisticated but natural and fresh – reminding me of aged wood and dried grass, yet there’s also something sensual and creamy, like smooth spices, lightly animalic and subtly sweet.
The perfume as a whole has a refined character – understated in style yet distinct. I’d say it’s one of the more difficult to describe perfumes that I’ve encountered, and it doesn’t surprise me to learn that it contains around 250 ingredients.
If I were the artist I might struggle to interpret this perfume visually. Happily, the artist, Yukako Sakakura, is here to talk me through her painting inspired by Matsukita, titled; ‘You Close Your Eyes to See our Spring’.
At first I’m reminded of Chinoiserie – those western European designs inspired by Chinese and Japanese art that found their way into wallpaper designs and ceramics of the Victorian era. I happen to love Chinoiserie, so my eyes roam happily over the graceful lines of Yukako’s painting. “It’s much more complicated than it first appears though isn’t it?” I observe. “Yes, in fact there are many, many layers of paint,” Yukako explains.
Mysterious white spheres appear to float in her painting – some semi-disappear into the background as though it’s made of dense atmosphere, some interact with little pink peppercorns. There’s a balance between all the elements – “Each plant painted here is present in the perfume, but they’re all finding their space in the painting,” Yukako elaborates. “I might feel this jasmine needs more room, or this pink pepper wants to meet this rose,” she added.
It’s exactly as a perfumer carefully composes layers of notes, adding and subtracting until the whole becomes so much more than the sum of its parts.
Tori’s idea of commissioning art to interpret perfume absolutely makes sense and I’m impressed with the choice of artist too. Not every artist builds their paintings in this particular way – in careful layers that are invisible on the surface at first but become apparent only with time and observation. There’s freedom and spontaneity in Yukako’s brushwork, but much thought in overall design.
I ask Tori why she thought of commissioning Yukako in particular and she explains a little of the inspiration behind the perfume as well as the background of Clive Christian Perfumes.
“We wanted someone contemporary to respond to this historic fragrance,” Tori explains. A fabled Japanese Princess who entranced Victorian society with her elegance and grace inspired the first iteration of the perfume Matsukita, created by Crown Perfumery – England’s respected and highly successful perfume house established in 1872.
By the more straitened times of the 1930s, Crown Perfumery merged with another company, then somewhat faded out of public consciousness until London-based designer Clive Christian decided to breathe new life into the perfumery, re-inventing the perfume company under his own name in the 1990s.
Christian was inspired by the fact that Crown Perfumery were so-named since they were patronised by Queen Victoria – hence the crown design on the perfume bottle stoppers. At their height, Crown Perfumery were renowned world-wide, as attested by records showing enthusiastic international demand.
To honour the illustrious history and quality of the house, Clive Christian allocated an unlimited budget in the making of the perfumes. Natural, high-quality absolutes are extremely labour intensive to produce, as are high-quality aroma chemicals that mimic the scent of florals whose essence can’t be captured naturally.
Having described the foundations of Clive Christian, Tori explains that because the original formula of Matsukita was lost, this new version of Matsukita has been re-imagined for 2021.
She asks Yukako to describe her creative process. “I sprayed Matsukita on my arm, then closed my eyes and lifted my brush to the painting,” she explained.
“What was it you said to me about Matsukita when you first wore it?,” encourages Tori. “Ah”, replies Yukako, “it was a perfume I felt I could wear with a Kimono”.
This is such an intriguing idea. I sniff my Matsukita-scented wrist and think of Geta sandals, painted silk, Lapsang Souchong, and tatami mats.
The event is drawing to a close, and it’s been a stimulating experience – the attendees include a team of vloggers, the editors of a philosophical lifestyle magazine, artists, writers and influencers. It’s only afterwards I realise that in the whirl of interesting conversations I completely forgot to ask Yukako what she meant by Matsukita being; “… a perfume I could wear with a kimono”.
She replies to my email: “Wearing a kimono makes me more conscious about my conduct, how I walk and move my arms. Probably this is because I feel I am breathing in art.”
I spray a little Matsukita, close my eyes and breathe in the scent, imagining a room in afternoon sunlight, a silk kimono in delicate spring-colour brushstrokes that flows like water as I lift it from a cedar-wood chest. The mood is of contentment rather than nostalgia, and I see what Yukako means; perfumes that inspire this particular sense of timeless grace are rare indeed.
Matsukita is available from Clive Christian’s website and from some perfume departments.