“For me, a great perfume is one that starts with a great story.”
“Like any great opera or any great movie, they start with a great script. Without one, you can’t direct your actors. It is the same with perfume,” says founder of the eponymously named luxurious fragrance house, Kilian, Kilian Hennessy.
And start with a great story, he does. Hennessy, a member of that Cognac dynasty, studied perfumery and launched his namesake label in 2007. The brand’s philosophy is to treat perfume as art. “For my latest collection, ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, I was inspired by Gustav Klimt’s work, at a very precise time – the Byzantine period. I took two paintings that really moved me – one is a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. I read her biography and her life is so tragic, so it’s very moving when you see how Gustav Klimt painted her in her sorrow, in her sadness,” he explains.
The entire Kilian collection now includes more than 35 scents, each with their own story and point of inspiration. The fragrances, like their bottles, are designed to be kept and treasured. High-quality ingredients result in a long-lasting sillage. “You have to push the boundaries even further. That’s what I prefer to do, that’s why, for example, the bottle from this collection comes in a box which is just mind-blowing. It’s really a play on gold and black with touches of lightness, to evoke unique emotions,” adds Hennessy.
