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What is more beautiful than a garden at
the peak of spring? Answer: a secret
garden at the peak of spring. For those
who live in New York, it might be the
Conservatory Garden along Central Park’s
eastern edge, which is also the locale
of a statue in memory of Frances Hodgson
Burnett, author of the beloved classic,
The Secret Garden. And for those who
live in Paris, there’s the luxuriant,
hidden garden atop the Hermès
headquarters at 24, rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré,
which is the inspiration for the
newly-launched, fourth fragrance in the
Hermès Un Jardin line: Un Jardin sur le
Toît (A Garden on the Roof).
For in-house parfumeur, Jean-Claude
Ellena, the Hermès roof garden has long
been a favorite sanctuary, for it was
where Ellena first took a meeting with
Hermès, which led to the creation of his
first Un Jardin fragrance for Hermès, Un
Jardin en Méditerranée (2003). Two other
garden fragrances quickly followed: Un
Jardin Sur Le Nil in 2005 (about which
Chandler Burr wrote The Perfect Scent)
and Un Jardin Après La Mousson in 2008.
In looking about for inspiration for his
fourth garden fragrance, something to
complement Hermès’ chosen theme
"Contemporary Artisan," Ellena realized
his creation was under his thumb, atop
his favorite roof. "One day," Ellena
recalls, "I found something I thought
was a long way away - right under my
nose."
It’s a beautiful metaphor: traveling the
world, only to realize that something
was waiting for you, all the time, at
home. It happened to Dorothy in Oz, and
it happens to everyone who sings the
Kander and Ebb chestnut, "Ring Them
Bells" - and it’s a perfect launch point
for Ellena’s latest composition.
The roof garden atop the Hermès flagship
is carefully tended by an Hermès
craftswoman known as Yasmina, the
gardener - and it’s the idea of Yasmina
as a "Contemporary Artisan" that fuels
Un Jardin sur le Toît. The fresh, green
scent is redolent of a spring garden
bursting with joy. Just as leaf-peepers
crave "peak weekend" in the autumn, so,
too, is there a moment in spring when
flowers and trees burst with fragrance -
and Un Jardin sur le Toît perfectly
captures the cacophony of spring
blossoms.
Opening with the sweet smell of apple
and pear, Un Jardin sur le Toît, subtly
shifts into the richness of a rose
growing alongside freshly-cut, green
grass. Like a garden maze, where each
turn introduces a new olfactory pleasure
- Basil! Magnolia! - that you know and
love, Un Jardin sur le Toît keeps
evolving, swirling around your head and
nose, entering your memory, filling your
soul, until you feel as if you’ve
slipped down the rabbit hole with Alice
into a garden wonderland.
Both fruity and floral, Un Jardin sur le
Toît encapsulates an entire season’s
worth of aromatic bounty. There’s even a
slight base note of compost, the
faintest hint of autumnal decay with its
implied promise of another spring just
ahead, when, yes, you can go home again,
back to the garden of your youth.
As an homage to the inherent wonders of
a garden, from the bees that pollinate
to the green thumbs that nurture, Un
Jardin sur let Toît celebrates the
annual miracle that we know as spring.
You can feel it burstin’ out all over -
and you can’t help but smile. It’s
delicious; it’s divine; it’s the joy of
spring in a bottle.
PRICE: $125.00 / 100 ml (3.3. fl
oz)
LINK:
Hermès Un Jardin sur le Toît |
