BORN FREE, SERGE LUTENS

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Arianna Pistorello

There are people who are born free. Intellectually and physically free. There are people who see forms and possibilities where all others don’t. This kind of  people normally succeed in feeling home almost anywhere, because the world belongs to them. Serge Lutens is of those fellows. He was born in Lille the 14th March of 1942. From the very beginning of his life he gave outlet to his creativeness freeing himself from ties of roads already marked;  he left school early and started to work as apprentice side by side with the most famous hairdressers in town. At  sixteen he engraved on clientele his very personal style getting a reputation:  strong criticisms from the conservatives  but  unconditional admiration from those who knew how to see behind appearances. In 62′ he  started  to collaborate with Vogue  that commissioned him the creation of jewels and objects for  prestigious columns. At  the same time magazines of international fame competed to have him on board. His career rapidly raised and soon Lutens collaborated with Dior Beautè to the creation of a revolutionary line of make up. In this period he also discovered Morocco, which will be one of his biggest inspirations. In the ’73 the Guggenheim Musuem in New York exhibited his photos, in ’74 he released his  first film as director which gained the Gran Prize at the International Film Festival sponsored by Unesco.

Since 1974 Serge Lutens has been living between Paris and Marrakech where the perfume of spices, citrus fruit and jasmines is everywhere. As natural reflexion he created there his first perfume called Amber Sultan; this unbelievable fragrance was born after an amber piece was offered to Serge during its first trip to Marrakech. For years he preserved it in a box made of tuya root: that particular melting between wood and amber was the starting point of this fragrance. Some years later another perfume was born. Nuit:  intoxicating, pompous it contains the secret of jasmine collected at the sunrise, the moment in which the flower spreads its maximum intensity. In 1989 Lutens started his collaboration with Shiseido and the meeting with Japan. A new inspiration, a new challenge. A whole line of perfumes with his name was launched afterwards along with the opening of the fantastic Salon Du Palais Royale Shiseido.  A Pantheon where people cross the door and  enters  in another time and in another space. A suggestive place where Lutens’  fragrances accompany “travellers” among in bloom valleys, magic woods and distant gardens. Look what can do ….a born free man.

http://www.sergelutens.com