FRANCESCA BIANCHI

PERFUMER’S STORY

In a Post-Apocalyptic world, a survivor of a sophisticated and refined civilisation is wearing a shimmering, tailor-made dress walking through a smoky, obscure place.  The contraposition between Beauty and Terror is expressed by The Tyger by W Blake: the animal is incredibly charming and seducing, yet dark, terrible and dramatic. The perfume is the result of this striking and sublime combination, creating a unique, mesmerizing atmosphere.

The making of 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 civilisation survived in the dark and fearful condition of a collapsed and destructured 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 prima donna, 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.