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A little more than one year ago, LVMH announced the recruitment of Jacques Cavallier.

Jacques Cavallier
One of the most talented Master Perfumer of his generation whose career up to now was written on the path of success. With the project of launching the very first Louis Vuitton fragrance, only an in-house Perfumer would be able to translate the environment of such a luxury brand. LVMH wishes to do things right. A couple of years ago when they hired François Demachy, Master Perfumer at Chanel, the aim was to have a complete mastery of Ingredient quality, formulation and in fine the all creation process.

François Demachy
With all luxury fashion brands like Dior, Kenzo, Fendi, Celine or Givenchy, dozens of project take place every year, so a better control was necessary. François Demachy built a strong Olfactory cell around him and creation should be controled. Another important point was the new limitations in terms of IFRA that required a revisit of certain classics like Miss Dior or Eau Sauvage Dior.
Now with the new project for the Louis Vuitton initial fragrance, the potential is so big that LVMH is getting to another level.
With the hiring of Jacques Cavallier, the aim would be to build a Fragrance lab in Grasse for Louis Vuitton and Dior. This information was released one year ago but now it is finally taking place. This week, Jacques Cavallier and François Demachy met local authorities in Grasse to give the kick-off for the building of the new laboratory.

Louis Vuitton Fragrance
The plan is to start all perfumery creation activities by 2015 and create Parfums Louis Vuitton.
At the start, a very old bourgeoise house from the 17th century. Too old to be kept, it is going to be demolished. But LVMH, with the will to protect french patrimonies, will rebuild the house in a 100% identical way. There will be 3 parts: the villa, one country-house and a Mill-house.

Louis Vuitton house in Grasse
Several activities will take place a apart of the fragrance creation itself. There will be an important training section with the mission to train hundreds of LVMH employees to the mysteries of fragrance creation. Training became crucial in the past 20 years as only from people with a solid knowledge can come excellence at work. Moreover and in complement of the international fragrance museum in Grasse, the public will be able to visit the LVMH house in order to discover the creation of the house best-sellers.
The cost of such construction is not revealed by LVMH but we believe that will be consequent.
The local authorities are quite happy about this project as it is going to bring a new dynamism to the region.
Several questions remain. Is the
Work on the Louis Vuitton fragrance start only after the house project is over? Would Jacques Cavallier work on other fragrance projects for other LVMH brands? Only the future will tell.
LA

Info sourced at NiceMatin. Grasse photo: Xavier Depoilly. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.