Like everyting else in life, the fragrances have to transfer to me their deeper and interior souls.
I have always circumvented the too commercial fragrances, which make people all the same and without an identity. Personally, I never use a single fragrance but I mix it 2 or 3 together, so as to recreate a unique fragrance in contact with my own skin.
I have experimented several niche brands, some have been shining meteors, other were sort of lasting relations but only one has become my unique Love.
You know, that kind of Love that was perfectly described by Confucio ” Life guides man thought through very tortuous paths. Often the balance is impeded, then the road returns straight. Sometimes a lively feeling can be expressed in words, at other times the grave weight of knowledge must close in silence. But when two people are united within the heart, they even break the bonds of bronze and iron. And when two in the intimate heart are fully understood, their words are sweet and strong like the scent of orchids.” Also better mentioned through an I ching line ” The companions first cry and groan, but then laugh. After great difficulties they manage to meet each other. After great difficulties in life, two divided people, but sincerely united within the heart, will end the same with winning, and then, when they find each other again, their sadness will change into joy.“
Can all mention above happened for a fragrances brand and, in particular, with a fragrance? Yes, it happened to me so it can happen to everybody else out there. And Liquides Imaginaires is my unique Love.
Liquides Imaginaires was created by Philippe Di Méo, Marseillais and transplanted to Paris designer founder of Reso Design and renowned for his creations made for, as example, Baccarat, Dior, Guerlian, CocaCola, Möet et Chandon and Christofle, with the cooperation of David Frossard, founder of the distribution label Différentes Latitudes.
Liquides Imaginaires is an experience that begins from the bottle itself that seems an ode to the brazier for incenses to the seal of the bottles that recalls a talisman and that is a graphic symbol made by two letters tied in the shape of a key and that opens the doors of worlds on the border between real and spiritual. The key protects but can also give access and freedom and it leads to a transition to existence and calls for a transformation.
These scents have a return to the origin, it is no more an accessory but they re-discover their spiritual power as in the ancient the perfumes were used also to protect from the negative and evil spirits, like the smoke that still today is used to purify and dispel the negativity.
As above so below as within so without.
These fragrances, potion or antidote, symbolize good and evil,
day and night, wisdom and intoxication.
Opposing yet inseparable, the trilogy is their esprit. Philippe Di Méo
But now is better to leave the words to this intimate conversation to Liquides Imaginaires creators, Philippe and David, and let you enter in their water, air and fire world.
1. Liquides Imaginaires is like an olfactory path from which springs a moment of personal introspection. How was this project of yours born?
These fragrances are like puzzles, they are used to interpret thoughts, intentions, confession.
They memorize passage of life, desires, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses. Volatile bodies that leave the material world and cross into imaginary worlds, intimate spirit evaporates, other fields explored, new desires found.
This perfume project was born in October 2011. My idea was to go back to the essence of perfume, to its olfactory asset, which power is a tool to dream, to purify, to bewitch, to fantasize, to draw an imaginary scent of ephemera.
2. The brand is born when your personal careers were already known and appreciated. Have your dreams of children become your adult reality?
I had a really exciting job and worked with prestigious clients, but the creative ambitions of the big luxury groups went down and I didn’t want to be frustrated at this moment of my career.
The exhibition was my starting point with the return to the sacred essence of the perfume. Some of these big groups tend to forget the importance of dream and curiosity.
3. What are the three characteristics that define you the most?
I am an impatient dreamer, and it means that I need to realize my dreams. I combine in my work imagination, excitation and action.
4. From what do you take inspirations in life as in the creation of a fragrance?
Emotions make me react in a primitive, instinctive way. This kind of inspiration-attraction can be linked with an object, a photo, an artwork or with a person. Most of my perfumes are inspired by the human or emotional relations.
5. Your fragrances are conceived as trilogies, how was born the idea of the first one ( Les Eaux-Delà ) and how the successive ones ( Les Eaux Sanguines, Les Eaux Arborantes, Eau de Peau, Eau Imaginaires) have developed?
Those perfumes are potions or antidotes, that represent good and evil, day and night, abandon and fusion, wisdom and intoxication, they are opposed and inseparable at the same time.
It is a history for three, that begins as a duel and then the referee takes a place to balance this equilibrium.
6. Among all the fragrances you have created until today, if you could choose one only, which would you name your favorite and why.
I cannot name only one, as I need a duality, the opposition of forces, so I will say, the spiritual purity of SANCTI that is linked with mysterious protection of FORTIS.
7. The various odors bring back memories or past emotions to the mind, is there a perfume to which you are particularly united? And … what a fragrance you would use for the city of Paris?
My perfumes are never nostalgic. It is not about memories, but it is a homage to historical or patrimonial past of culture, with its myths and legends.
The one that can represent Paris is SANCTI, for his sacred incense along with citrus freshness and the tonic modernity of cypress and rosemary.
It is a perfect balance between tradition and modernity.
8. Is there a particular message that you want to convey with Liquides Imaginaires? The first time I “smelled” your fragrances I felt some essences that go beyond. That go beyond rigid and stale dogmas and that are placed above, in an ethereal level.
Our perfumes carry the greatness in the freedom and beauty of their creation, going beyond the simplistic function of a beauty accessory.
«Per fumum» from the Latin ‘through smoke’. It proposes us an imaginary world, invites us for an immobile journey, an escape, thanks to its invisible language.
Perfume is divine, because it allows humans to pass from material to immaterial worlds.
LIQUIDES IMAGINAIRES (IMAGINARY LIQUIDS) are the perfumes of elevation.
9. For the introduction of your brand, I encountered various difficulties in finding adjectives that could define it. To curb it in single words seemed to me to make it belittle and deprive it of its true being… The versatility. What is of Philippe & David inside Liquides Imaginaires? How much have you laid bare for this wonderful project?
Liquides Imaginaires was born in 2012, at the confluence of two complimentary minds, when Philippe Di Méo’s artistic fiber met David Frossard’s business flair.
Multifaceted designer with a strong appetite for words, tastes, liquids and sacred places, Philippe is Liquides Imaginaires’ creative brain. Most of the brand expressions spring from his unstoppable curiosity, conceptual force and artistic intuitions, on balanced notes of exhilaration and diligence.
David, on the other hand, down-to-earth and always on the move, is the business growth engine. Firmly holding the reins of the commercial development, David can talk for hours about Malraux, Spinoza and the Greek legends, just as he likes to ride his motorbike on open highways, to fuel his tank with fresh ideas and inspiration.
Contrasting yet perfectly fusional, each of them harboring his own paradoxes, Philippe and David are enlivened by the same cause: to challenge the status quo of the perfume, taking it to a deeper level of use and understanding.
10. Your boutique in Paris (9 rue de Normandie ) is a real experience, both olfactory and of design, in the heart of Marais. Besides Liquides Imaginaires, you can find also other niche brands. I would like to ask you on the basis of what you choose them… a matter of flair or chemistry under skin?
We are extremely selective when it comes to our store LIQUIDES. Before you had a clear segmentation between commercial fragrances and niche. This doesn’t exist anymore, since “niche” started to become the new hit thing, a lot of opportunist brands launched their products. We believe that the consumer deserve from us to do a proper selection, it is our duty as professional to sell only true and qualitative products.
We choose them for what they express, what are the intentions of the creator. We are not interested by the easy consumption, all the” me too “products that you find more and more in the niche perfumery. When “niche” starts to become a real business it is important to stay very clear about where we stand. We stand on the quality of the raw materials used and definitely on the creativity.
David Frossard
11. The perfumes are work of art, are there any new projects planned for 2018? Maybe the launch of new fragrances or the beginning of a new trilogy…
A scoop for this interview 😊
We are going to launch the third opus of the Trilogy “Imaginary Waters” (Eaux Imaginaires) in September with a new imaginary “country”.
Furthermore, we envisage another novelty in September. It will be Liquides Imaginaires’ artistic collaboration for the perfume of a new mind dedicated to urban Amazons.
Philippe Di Méo
Carolina
