Francesca Bianchi - Tyger Tyger
The title is the incipit of a masterpiece of poetry, The Tyger by William Blake.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In this composition I have been searching for the perfect balance between two opposite elements, and the expression of their clashing contraposition.
I had in mind a Post-Apocalyptic condition, where traces of a highly sophisticated and refined civilization survived in the dark and fearful condition of a collapsed and destroyed world. Blake’s Tyger embodies both qualities I wanted to depict: sublime and irresistibly attractive from one side and terrible and scary from the other one.
The ‘fearful symmetry’ — a character attributed to the tiger by W Blake — aptly represent this opposition of beautiful perfection and terror.
The perfume is built around an accord of narcotic white flowers with sweet-fruity facets, which includes also an absolute of Tuberose — like a primadonna, the protagonist of a dramatic piece, she’s the finest example of a refined civilization of a bygone world; in opposition to that, the base notes present different kind of woods, with some burnt and leathery qualities, referring to a post-apocalyptic scenario of destruction, mystery and darkness.
The result of these parts - which wouldn’t work individually - is a clashing, sparkling fragrance which gives me an exciting emotion of highly dramatic sophistication - the kind of contrasted sentiment that anything attractive arouses in me.
