New York, New York. This fiction-like city, overflowing with cinematic tales and famous refrains, powerful images and nagging tunes, is where Olfactive Studio chose to stop over. The perfect destination for calling up the nostalgia that perfume so keenly conjures. Past the Hudson in the heart of Manhattan, total immersion, New York-style, is a guarantee of unique sights and singular sensations. New York is one of the most photographed and photogenic cities in the world. An open-air film set, a stage for stories of all kinds. The olfactory story, as told by this fragrance house, coaxes out the magnetic city’s multiple personalities.
Flash Back in New York is the second fragrance, after Still Life in Rio, to choose a city and its architecture as a point of departure, which strike a pose, long enough for the fragrance to be created. The approach is a testimony of affection. To evoke the essence of New York, through a perfume no less, one must love it madly and have created many a memory there. (to be precise). Perfumer Jérôme Epinette, working for the first time with Olfactive Studio, lives and works in the city.
Photographer Vivienne Gucwa, whose image graces the bottle never fails to reveal through her lens that certain New York je ne sais quoi, somewhere between the Brownstones and the buildings, the soul that belongs to New York alone. It is in the wake of a snowy avenue, bathed in a warm nocturnal light, an illuminated Chrysler Building just visible in the distance, where Flash Back in New York gets its bearings. Its composition pays perfect tribute to this city that stops for nothing, even the fiercest of blizzards. New York is like fire under ice, and demands a composition fitting its excessiveness, its astonishing possibilities.
New York combines emotions and heightens them, with a taste for play and a sense of daring. Flash Back in New York is a fine likeness, penetrated with strong notes that give it a singular presence, one that lingers in the memory. A perfume of contrasts for a land that asserts its perpetual differences, to be experienced with neither precaution nor pretext. Dizzying.
The element of surprise is one of the city’s trademarks. At once exuberant and full of contrasts, Flash Back in New York starts with an energetic blend of cumin, saffron, and sage. The first wave of emotion segues into a captivating heart note to the beat of violet and jasmine, and a note of Tuscan leather that lends warmth to the composition. The fragrance swiftly evolves into a slow and graceful movement toward a warm woody and addictive accord of smoked birch, papyrus, and vetiver.
Vivienne Gucwa
Vivienne Gucwa is a full-time fine art travel photographer, who makes a living working on commissions that take her all over the world. When not travelling, Vivienne has a passion for taking photos of the city she grew up in and dearly loves, New York City. Two major focuses of her work revolve around an ongoing exploration of different forms of nostalgia and an ongoing quest to distill the essence of cityscapes and landscapes into distinctive visual remnants that resonate universally. Her work has been published in a variety of publications online, in ad campaigns, on album and book covers. Her latest New York photography book titled “NY in the snow” features the selected picture which inspired this fragrance. She enjoys connecting on a regular basis with her online audience of 2.5 million:www.nythroughthelens.com
Jérôme Epinette
Jérôme Epinette is a Senior Perfumer with Robertet Fragrances. Graduated of the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, he began his career in Robertet’s Paris office in 2003 and joined the US team to launch the New York Creative Center in 2006. When walking down the streets of Manhattan, he loves noticing the sillage of perfume trailing from women as they pass by. In his spare time, Jerôme is an accomplished cook and enjoys blending different types of herbs in unique combinations to create new culinary experiences. Had he not become a perfumer, Jérôme would have been a sommelier. His admiration for winemaking is influenced by his home town of Burgundy. He loves to go wine tasting to compare the different notes in wine, just like in perfumery. He enjoys working with niche brands like Byredo, Vilhelm and Olfactive Studio now, as they allow room for his creativity.
