The LVMH-owned luxury perfume, cosmetics and skincare house Guerlain recently opened its largest-scale fragrance exhibition in the brand’s history in Shanghai. Titled “An Exploration of Fragrance, since 1828 & Beyond”, the exhibition occupies the entire Bund One building, formerly the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom.
Divided into 4 themed sections, the exhibition showcases over 80 rare items that trace Guerlain’s nearly two centuries of fragrance history. The areas include one about the history of Guerlain fragrances, such as the 1853 Eau de Cologne Impériale and the 1889 “Jicky”, the 1921 “Shalimar” and the Maison’s first men’s perfume, the 1965 Habit Rouge. A second area pays tribute to the sources of the ingredients from Guerlain, including an immersive installation of a lemon orchard, a rose garden and an orange blossom distillery, as well as a VR experience of the shores of Brittany where Guerlain keep its bees for honey.
The next area shows the art of perfumery and debuts the “olfactory symphony”, a collaboration between Guerlain and the French sound and music research institute IRCAM. The final area displays art created using perfume bottles as a medium. With a multi-sensory onslaught, the exhibition asks the question – what lies beyond fragrance?
The opening ceremony of the Guerlain exhibition in Shanghai saw guests including Joan Valadou, the Consul General of France and the president of LVMH Greater China Wang Yue, and celebrities and Guerlain brand ambassadors. Ann-Caroline Prazan, Guerlain’s Director of Art, Culture and Heritage, said in an interview at the opening that the exhibition tries to explore the essence of Guerlain. With pundits pointing out that the Maison, despite its success in the e-commerce arena, still needed to communicate its brand identity to compete in the beauty market and the exhibition is a great opportunity to do so.