Fitness by Michelle Gilbert

Christophe Tollemer, French architect and Henry Jacques’ Artistic Director

all of our perfumes, using 1200 of the best natural components”, says Anne-Lise. In fact, Maison Henry Jacques might be one of the “Occitane” region best kept secrets, nestled in Draguignan, a commune in the Var department in the ProvenceAlpes-Côte d’Azur region, in southeastern France. It is from that perfectly sunny region that Anne-Lise father, Jacques Cremona, founded his laboratory, becoming eventually one of the most exclusive perfume makers in the world.

“Our most famous collection “Les Classiques de HJ” consists of 50 scents made by Henry Jacques, and for our boutique in Dubai we have added 30 more as a tribute to our clientele in the region. It was not easy for us to make this selection because for decades our Maison was mainly making bespoke perfumes, creating made to measure perfumes and bottles”, says Anne-Lise.

The distinctive elegant style of the boutique, as well as all the bottles, was designed by Christophe Tollemer, esteemed French architect and Henry Jacques’ Artistic Director, who has in his portfolio several palaces in France.

“We have many surprises and special gifts hidden in the boutique, for those who are looking to buy a gift or one of our ready creations”, says AnneLise. “However, keeping up with Henry Jacques tradition, the boutique also offers bespoke services. And that is a whole different experience.”

Escorting me to a small, very private and elegant “salon”, Anne-Lise explained to me how Maison Henry Jacques is expending its bespoke tradition into their Dubai store. “For years, we have created custom perfumes, so it was very natural for us. The new thing we had to do was to introduce this experience

OUR GOAL IS TO SHOWCASE OUR

ACHIEVEMENTS TO THE GREATEST NUMBER

OF CONNOISSEURS AND LOVERS OF GREAT FRAGRANCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST, MANY OF THEM

HAVE ALREADY BEEN FAITHFUL CLIENTS OF OUR MAISON FOR YEARS, EVEN DECADES.

- ANNE-LISE CREMONA

as part of a shop”, she says. “The good news is that we are currently working to be able to offer this service for customers who come to our store. They will be able to live this experience to have their own bespoke perfume.”

A custom-made perfume for many other Maisons is a very long process that could take a year. In order to shorten the process and simplify it, the experts at Henry Jacques have prepared an album that resembles an olfactory test. “It’s like a personality test. We will help customers identify the smells they like by using clues such as certain places, while also awakening memories and feelings.”

The first step begins after this consultation has taken place, and it takes two months during which the results will be sent to the Maison laboratories in the South of France where a committee of perfumers will study them and propose three samples that will be validated by Anne-Lise. After two months, these three proposals will be returned to the person, and then the customer will take the time they want to choose. “In 95% of cases, the client chooses one of these three samples. We realized that it is very rare for a client to ask for some adjustments. The second step lasts two and a half months during which we will create with the client a lot of accessories, and a very nice chest completely customizable that we are finalizing with Christophe. The last step is the manufacturing of the perfume and the accessories, which takes four months and a half”, concludes Anne-Lise.

“This is a complete Art-devivre experience that Henry Jacques is proposing in this boutique. The production takes four and a half months. There are very few bespoke perfume makers, and in order to be able to offer this know-how to our customers in our own stores, we made the somewhat risky decision to create and manage them ourselves”. What more, Maison Henry Jacques is in the process of reworking a physical presentation of all their creations, which represents two thousand perfumes, so it’s like having a catalogue of their perfumes to make the creation process of custom-made orders go smoother. The same goes for the accessories as they can provide all kind of bespoke bottles and boxes, in the finest of material, sometimes in gold and precious stones.

At the end of our tour, Anne-Lise Cremona invited me to live the experience of creating my own bespoke perfume at their boutique. So I will be reporting soon to share the experience!

The prestigious Henry Jacques store at The Dubai Mall, Second Floor, Fashion Avenue.