Diaghilev by Roja Perfumes
Image Credit: rojaparfums.com
Diaghilev by Roja Dove is one of the most prized perfumes I have in my library. For me, the story behind this perfume is so much bigger than the perfume itself. But before I talk about Diaghilev, a word on Roja. Roja is a English perfumer genius who is a master craftsman, but he is also a bit like Apple when it comes to smartphones. As most people would acknowledge, Apple is hardly the first to come up with new ideas. But they take an existing idea, polish it to perfection, make a luxurious offer you can’t refuse and off you go. There are plenty of stories about Roja Dove’s perfumers which are considered a riff off another perfume from several years or even decades ago. Diaghilev is no exception to that. Roja is known to utilize an obscenely high number of notes, so he is the proverbial opposite of minimalist. The notes for Diaghilev are as follows -
Top — Lemon, Bergamot, Lime, Orange, Tarragon Heart — Rose de Mai, Jasmin de Grasse, Tuberose, Ylang Ylang, Heliotrope, Violet, Blackcurrant Buds, Peach Base — Clove, Cumin, Nutmeg, Patchouli, Oakmoss, Vetiver, Cedarwood, Guaiacwood, Sandalwood, Benzoin, Vanilla, Peru Balsam, Orris, Styrax, Labdanum, Leather, Ambrette, Ambergris, Musk, Civet
I cannot say much more about the perfume without getting into the story, which also means I have to mention another perfume Guerlain Mitsouko. Jacques Guerlain released Mitsouko in 1919, more than 100 years ago. This was supposed to be one of the first fragrances to utilize peach. Mitsouko is one of the defining moments of Guerlain, and Guerlain is one of the historically important perfume houses. So as the story goes, a Russian art critic and a ballet impresario fell in love with the scent of Mitsouko, and wanted to create the Mitsouko vibe to his ballet audiences. He bought copious quantities of the juice, and started spraying the juice on the curtains and drapery inside the ballet house, so people started associating their ballet experience with this olfactive experience. Inspired by the story of this Russian, whose name of course is Sergei Diaghilev, Roja created this eponymous perfume.
If I provide the note listing of Guerlain Mitsouko, this will make more sense -
Top — Bergamot, Citrus fruits Jasmine, Rose Heart — Peach, Ylang-ylang, Lilac Base — Oakmoss, Spices, Vetiver, Ambergris, Cinnamon
While I don’t have a copy of Mitsouko to do a 1st person comparison (it is still being produced), I do have other examples of Roja being Apple — most importantly Roja’s Danger being an Apple-fied Guerlain Heritage. Roja’s Vetiver is Guerlain Vetiver (which is a historically significant perfume) and many more. So why keep improvising on Guerlain all the time? While it is certainly not true he is only after Guerlain (he has Apple-fied Hermes, Malle, YSL and others), Guerlain is a big part of his current work, because he cut his teeth with Guerlain in his early years. The cynical people say he stole the formulae while he was still working there, the generous people say he is most inspired by Guerlain.
If Roja Diaghilev’s story backdrop is Guerlain Mitsouko, what is Mitsouko’s backdrop you ask? See, Mitsouko was created in 1919, when the world was still dealing with the aftermath of World War I. During the same year, a French novel La Bataille was published, which was a beautiful story of a love affair between Mitsouko, the young wife of a Japanese admiral, and a young British naval officer, who was in charge of training the Japanese. The Japanese admiral knew the whole time about this affair and did nothing about it — for to him, he was putting his country ahead of his own pride. Jacques Guerlain, Mitsouko’s nose, was deeply moved by the story and decided to name the perfume after the Japanese girl. Mitsouko and many other perfumes not only are legendary perfumes, not only have great stories behind them, but also point to a specific time in history. Like a time capsule.