The lost art of loafing

Man was made to wander. In a digital landscape with an increasing emphasis on optimization, however, it seems as though we’ve forgotten the importance of observation—more specifically, observation without consuming. Consider, then, the flâneur. A French term derived from the Old Norse verb “flana” (“to wander with no purpose”), “flâneur” roughly translates to “stroller,” “saunterer,” or even “loafer”—leave it to France to create an archetype for the disaffected and the aimless. The term flâneur, coined by author and poet Charles Baudelaire, emerged in the 19th century and quickly became a full-fledged paradigm, necessitated by the rapid onset of modernization.

A flâneur’s role was to momentarily relinquish their identity and adopt that of the city’s. To wander through an urban landscape and become purposefully lost in the crowds, observing their surroundings with a sense of detachment. Flâneurs became a literary staple around this time, frequently utilized as means of examining the effects of modernity through a critical lens. Thus, the flâneur, as a character, became a vehicle through which to explore social alienation, bubbling gender and class tensions, and the hastily evolving culture of the European city as a whole.

As Baudelaire argued, the social and economic shifts enacted by industrialization meant that artists in particular could no longer afford to divorce themselves from their cultural contexts. It was now essential to immerse oneself in the urban landscape and become “botanist[s] of the sidewalk.”

This calls to mind a quote from the late, great Jeff Buckley: “Without ordinary life, there is no art.” Serviette knows this intimately. Without an ability (or a desire) to examine the quotidian as a modicum of culture, where do we find ourselves?

Creating a fragrance, much like being a flâneur, is a form of observation. Serviette delights in toying with scents that belong to the everyday, ones we often hardly register if we aren’t looking for them. Consider Sour Diesel, a delicate blend of spring florals laden with an unexpected, rhubarby kush accord. Or Byronic Hero, a sputter of diesel exhaust couched in lush, velvety rose petals. By placing these aromas in surprising and unconventional contexts, we aim to create more than just beautiful smells; Serviette’s fragrances are meditations on the cultural mechanisms that remain curiously invisible, swimming just beneath our conscious minds.

We encourage you to go forth and embrace your inner flâneur, remaining ever observant. Your efforts may just be rewarded.