Unless you're a royal, a member of high society, a savvy epicurean or perhaps a connoisseur of the luxury world, it's unlikely you've ever heard of Henry Jacques. We can tell you though that it's a 47-year-old, small, family-run maker of exceptional bespoke perfumes, with an encyclopaedia of rarefied ingredients from all over the world, and a library of over 3,000 tailor-made fragrance formulas. Named after its founder, Henry Jacques Cremona, it's so un-mainstream, it actually only launched a commercial line a little over a decade ago (when the founder's daughter, Anne-Lise Cremona, took over). And, perhaps even more remarkably, it only sells that retail line within its own network of shops, the first of which it opened in 2014 (on the super exclusive last floor of London's Harrod's).
Why did your father end up starting a perfume brand?
Like many success stories, this one started with a chance encounter and a friendship. In the case of Henry Jacques, my father met an older gentleman who was a famous ‘nose’ but someone who had grown disillusioned with the industry, which in the early 1980s, was moving towards a more industrial production. He was an artist though, who had learnt his craft from six generations before him and these changes went against what he stood for. As luck would have it, when he met my father, they had this surreal connection and decided to blend their talents and share a passion for something uncompromising and beautiful.
How is Henry Jacques superior to the high-end perfumes we might find in a Duty Free?
Everything we do is without compromise in terms of quality. It all starts with the ingredients, and the best natural ingredients are very, very expensive and often difficult to source. If ever you come to our laboratory you will see we work with over 1,200 components and it would take several lifetimes to build such a selection now.
As they say though, anyone can own a Steinway but not anyone can write a symphony. So, how did you make your symphony of 50 classic compositions?
Good question. It took me around two years to decide on what we wanted to share with the wider public. As you know, we spent decades in the shadows creating exceptional bespoke perfumes for connoisseurs, but what many don't know is that when you create a bespoke perfume, you go through a long and interesting creative process to get to a final result. Because of this, we had over 3,000 formulas, some of which are extraordinary. So, what I did over that two-year period was refine all that experience down to a collection that shares the patrimony of the brand but also adds contemporary updates too.
50 perfumes sounded like a lot to us until we realised Tom Ford's collection, for example, consists of 112 scents. How many of yours are dedicated to men, how many to women?
We actually have no gender bias. It’s not a marketing thing, rather it's that we believe perfume is an emotion. For instance, some men find the smell of roses to be very sensual, especially when it’s mixed with something else. The idea that women’s scents have to be sweet and men’s ones need to be virile is very old-fashioned.
Do you feel you’ve found the right positioning for the brand, and the right balance of expertise versus recognition?
For a long time, I was more concerned with getting a strong basis on which to build the brand. I wasn't in a hurry to be visible everywhere and I would never want to open a boutique only to then close it a few years later. That's why we have been very careful with the positioning and choose only the right opportunities. It’s a long-term strategy for us and after eleven years we are on the cusp of opening our tenth boutique. It’ll be in Paris, this May and it will serve as our flagship store, with 400 square metres of space on Avenue Montaigne. Then, by 2023 we should have added five further boutiques around the world.
They say that perfumes are the most profitable brand extension for fashion labels because the fragrance itself costs mere cents and the major outlay is marketing. Your model is the exact opposite though, isn't it?
This is the unfortunate truth and something I am always fighting against. For most brands the perfume business has been created to serve another function whether couture or something else. But, in the end, those who create the perfume are left very unhappy because there are so many cuts along the way that, in the end, you might have a product that’s profitable and visible around the world but it almost certainly won't be historic and, in my opinion, it cannot serve its true purpose, which is allowing perfume to be the ultimate luxury.
Why spend so much on 'Toupie' crystal vessels and carbon fibre 'Clic-Clacs' if it’s the contents that matters? It’s not like Chateau Margaux ever feels the need to reinvent its bottles.
I love your questions and I do agree somewhat. We are perfumers, not crystal makers, or jewellers, but there are two points to clarify, first you must understand that the art of living is very important to Henry Jacques and second, we have huge respect for exceptional artisans, especially ones who can help elevate our product.
Typically, perfumes are liquid so we are fascinated by your solids and their covetable 'Clic-Clacs' but, do solid form perfumes actually have an advantage over liquids?
Our collection of scents are not just varied in their scope but their designation too because they're all available as traditional essences, as “brumes” or vaporisers, and finally as solids. I personally find solids to be a thoroughly modern solution because they’re super convenient to travel with and because we make them using 100 per cent natural ingredients, meaning genuine wax from flowers. They're also long-lasting, contain no alcohol, are easy to re-apply and are more sustainable.
Finally, could you give us an idea as to the prices of Henry Jacques perfumes?
Sure, the entry point is a 15ml essence or the 75ml brume, which we decided to price identically at around 600 Euros. The Clic-Clac containers start at 30,000 Euros. And should you be interested in developing your own bespoke perfume, then prices start at around 80,000 Euros.
