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Welcome to Back of the Napkin, musings from Serviette for the cultured world. At long last, Serviette’s newest limited-edition release—Immacula—has been formally introduced. Though some may have already received a brief introduction, consider this the longer version: the backstory behind Serviette’s love affair with tuberose, a flower sometimes known, rather wonderfully, as the “harlot of perfumery.” And do mark your calendars: starting September 15th, Immacula can finally be yours.
As with all of Serviette’s offerings, a fragrance as layered as Immacula (more on this later) began with an inspiration equally as complex. In this case, French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin’s prolific advertising campaigns for Charles Jourdan provided the visual basis for what would eventually become Immacula.
Bourdin, protégé of American visual artist Man Ray, rose to prominence in the 1950s when he entered into a 30-year collaboration with Vogue Paris. Several exhibitions deep in Parisian galleries, and Bourdin was finally ready to present his work to then editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, Edmonde Charles-Roux. When they met, his portfolio—vacant of any commercial work—got him his first commission in February of 1955. The shoot, “Chapeaux-Choc,” was a parade of milliner Claude Saint-Cyr’s creations through Les Halles meat market. Luxury fashion and smiling models contrasted with dead swine and disemboweled rabbits. The image caused something of a commotion at Vogue.
To Bourdin, subversion was paramount—in his early works, legs were a particular focus, becoming graphic architecture under his careful gaze. In a now-famous 1968 image, a pair of legs clad in red hosiery and green heels frames a prone man outside a brightly lit cinema; the marquee cheekily reads “caught in the act.” In true Bourdin fashion, it condenses noir, menace, eroticism, and spectacle into a single commercial image. Long before the age of digital retouching, Bourdin took great pains to bring his phantasmagorical visions to life, pushing the form to its outermost limits.
It didn’t take long for his Technicolor dreamscapes to catch the (discerning) eye of Roland Jourdan, who enlisted him to spearhead the shoe brand’s advertising campaigns for a blissful 14 years. Jourdan gave the photographer free rein, and the resulting images became his most iconic. By breaking the standard advertising formulas, Bourdin ushered in a new era of “renegade glamor.”
This is approximately where Immacula comes in. Spotlighting tuberose (the so-called “harlot of perfumery”), Immacula hardly shies away from the white floral’s narcotic edge. It’s tuberose after curfew, in all its brazen, untamed glory. Paired with the industrial edge of ionized steam and hot, sticky asphalt and made seismic with zingy pomelo oil and candied ginger, it unfolds like a Bourdin photo series: seductive, dangerous, and unfathomably chic.
We thank you for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. Beginning Monday, September 7, Immacula will be available on our website for pre-saves. Those wishing to know the exact moment it becomes available—and, given the size of the edition, this may be useful information—can leave their email there. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts. See you on the 15th.