Germaine Cellier (1909-1976): Innovator and Iconoclast

10/21/09 22:42:35

By: Elena Vosnaki

In the pantheon of great modern perfumers it is not often that we come across women, at least during the first half of the 20th century. Amongst them, one star shines brightest, that of Germaine Cellier; untrammeled by convention, free-spirited in an era that frowned upon most of her customs, but which could not deny her bold, ebullient approach to perfumery. It is no accident that Guy Robert's book, Les Sens du Parfum, himself the stuff of legend, dedicates precious space to her opus.

Born on the 26th of January 1909 in Bordeaux, the capital of wine, Germaine Cellier was quite formidable in grasping the finer things out of life but generous enough to share them with her entourage.

A great beauty in all the typically considered feminine attributes (blonde, slim, elegant, with big blue eyes), she sat for André Derain and was termed an “Arletty blonde” by those who crossed her path as passed down by Jeannine Mongin.

Yet her virile style of perfumery and her atypical allegedly lesbian proclivities revealed a free spirit, full of ardor and intellectual aloofness, that refused to be harnessed: "Cellier infamously dedicated Fracas ~a voluptuous tuberose scent conceived for “femmes”~ to the beautiful Edwige Feuillère, while she promised the butcher Bandit to the “dykes”.

For the latter she went as far as stripping models of their undergarments as they exited the runway, furtively sniffing in an attempt to capture “the best of their femininity”!

Starting her chemistry studies in 1930 in Paris, Germaine Cellier later joins the team at Roure Bertrand Dupont under the direction of Jean Sfiras, classifying fractions of synthetic products’ distillations and installs herself at the artistic endroit of Montparnasse where she befriends Chas Laborde. She understands fashion and the value of presenting herself just right: She lives on fashion-conscious rue Boccador, opts for the icy hauteur of skirt-suits by Balmain, impressive cocktail rings and hats by Rose Valois, keeps three pet Teckel dogs (named Cleopatre, Félix and Valentin) and one singing parrot, has a porter whom she calls Foujita carry her bags on the street at two paces behind her and generally adopts the airs of a princess!

Yet her well-known generosity towards those in need (she was nicknamed “the great lady of the market of Neuilly”) and her great pains into securing what her friends desire more than compensates for those. More defiantly than the above she always talks in a crude, low-class manner and smokes like a chimney, when women were expected to be behaving daintily. She eats tons of garlic at the dinner table while composing her Piguet fragrances along with the Swiss-born Parisian couturier (It was not without poignancy that Hélène Rochas remarked of Robert Piguet that “he was dressed like a Protestant, always in black, but had a biting humor”! He was certainly on to something!)

More importantly to the advancement of her career, however, Cellier is violently clashing with Roure's acclaimed star-perfumer Jean Carles, when subordinates were expected to comply: In their opposition, one can discern the abrupt antithesis of two systems; one of ordained taxis and one of creative chaos. It was Carles after all who pioneered the organization of perfumery materials in his famous charts and the anti-establishment spirit of Cellier couldn’t capitulate.

She went as far as coming to work at ten in the morning and leaving before noon, considering her work for the day accomplished. The solution to her Roure disputes, presented by Louis Amic, was to set Cellier up in her own laboratory in Paris in 1946 (baptized Exarome); a place where she could create her perfumes and meet her clients. At the time the great fragrance houses such as Coty, Guerlain, Houbigant and Caron produced their formulae themselves, while companies such as Givaudan, and Roure Bertrand Dupont monopolized the fabrication of raw materials and “bases”, i.e. ready-made accords that were conceived to cut down on labor when a particular effect was needed in the composition of a perfume. Yet Louis Amic was determined to inaugurate a tradition of finished fragrances in the creation of which Cellier was instrumental.

Although her creative career started by briefly acting as a functional scents composer for Colgate-Palmolive soaps in 1943 (a stint which lasted but three months) she went on to gingerly and boldly mix perfumers' "bases" at Roure. Despite such an approach seeming lazy, especially in view of the above behavior, her wit wondrously helped her into coming up with stunning compositions: The galbanum-souled Vent Vert by Balmain with its biting verdancy forever changing the visage of florals, the knife-scathing outlaw of Bandit with its intense leathery bitterness of quinolines in 1944, the oriental passport of Visa in 1946, the buttery radiance of tuberose in 1948's Fracas (all three for Robert Piguet), the nostalgic violet chypre Jolie Madame for Balmain (1953) which reworked the Bandit theme in more muted tones, as well as the masculine Monsieur Balmain which proved a success with both sexes.

One of her mysteriously disappearing acts is "Elysées 63.84" for Balmain, the name standing for the telephone number of the couture house, as well as a geranium-based Eau which Pierre Balmain fiercely guarded for his own use. For Nina Ricci she collaborates with Christian Bérard who designed the romantic heart flacon in Coeur Joie, an elegant and uncharacteristically delicate floral aldehydic of great refinement (1946).

Hers is the lesser known, but none the less majestic, La Fuite des Heures for Balenciaga in 1949, a Provençal herbs and jasmine formula of great radiance and tenacity. Among her portfolio there is also the agrestic Eau d'Herbes (Herbal Water) conceived for Hermès at an unspecified date during the 1950s meant to recreate just cut herbs, which remains an enigma, and several compositions for Elizabeth Arden for distribution in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s.

Dying of failing health in 1976 her legacy is remaining relevant to this day, most of her iconic creations having spawned a progeny of upstarts, imitators and bona fide homage. Who can begin contemplating tuberose fragrances without comparing them to the Jungian archetype: Fracas? From the original Chloe to Gianfranco Ferré to Versace’s Blonde and on to the niche offerings like Tubéreuse Criminelle or Carnal Flower and numerous others, the lady is having a jovial laugh at the olfactory brawl (the meaning of the fragrance name itself) she has created through the halls of perfumery; hers is the landmark to which everything is measured up against!

Her style is one of dissonance, not of equilibrium, insisting on short formulae that put great emphasis on the vivid juxtaposition of strong materials full of character: They fight and they couple passionately like people of a tempestuous character like her own, while the finished fragrances fiercely limit their ability to accommodate the wearer remaining resolutely independent. The butyric yet rubbery feel of tuberose clashes violently with the sharper bergamot and oakmoss, the whole projecting itself at razor-sharp pitch. The dried herb, dusty aroma of thyme is fanning out the opulence and headiness of jasmine making the luxurious turn rustic. The fresh top of verbena and citronella provides the antipode of the pungency of leather and artemisia bites into violet powder to render a compelling fauve.

Her hand is also very generous with quantity: a daring 1% of the nose-singeing isobutyl quinoline in Bandit, a staggering 8% of bitter galbanum in Vent Vert, rewriting the rules of perfumery and introducing the archetypal green leather and the iconic verdant floral respectively. It is difficult to imagine how perfumery would have been today without Germaine Cellier (or how she would react to today’s perfumery of focus groups and discussion panels), such was the defiance with which she paved her own way and became one of the most rebellious names in fragrance creation. And for that we’re truly thankful

Ref:

Jeannine Mongin, Societe Francaises des Parfumers

Guy Robert, Les Sens du Parfum

Roja Dove, The Essence of Perfume

Images: Societe Francaise des Parfumeurs, Geurengoeroe

Author: Elena Vosnaki is a historian & perfume writer from Greece and a Writer to Fragrantica. She is the founder and editor of Perfume Shrine, one of the most respected independent online publications on perfume containing fragrance reviews, industry interviews, essays on raw materials and perfume history, a winner in Fragrantica Blog Awards and a finalist in numerous blog awards contests. Her writing was recognised at the Fifi Awards for Editorial Excellence in 2009 and she has been contributing to publications around the world.

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