Distinctively styled French fashion house, Zadig & Voltaire, founded by Thierry Gillier, has launched its first dual male and female scents since signing a licensing agreement with Beauté Prestige International [a division of Shiseido] for fragrance creation, production and distribution in 2014.

BPI has successfully built the fragrance businesses of many fashion houses including Jean Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake and Narciso Rodriguez, and it hopes to do the same with its new partner, Zadig & Voltaire, when it launches the new duo on 29 August and they progressively enter domestic and duty free and travel retail markets.

This launch is especially important for BPI given that the key Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance account went to the fashion brand owner, Puig, in January, leaving a revenue hole to be filled.

BPI says it has taken the Zadig & Voltaire brand’s DNA – which has a rock influence – and bottled it into two alter ego fragrances: This is Her! and This is Him! in respective white and black bottles.

Gillier, a graduate of New York’s Parsons School of Design uses art as inspiration, fused with rock, to create his chic yet casual fashion. BPI notes: “This new pair of fragrances draws from the brand’s values to create the unexpected.”

On the monochromatic bottles, Cecilia Bönström, Artistic Director at Zadig & Voltaire, says: “The design is elegant and simple, inspired from contemporary art. We wanted to focus on a minimalist design, black and white, with this symbol of opposition and attraction between men and women.”

FRAGRANCE PROFILES

This is Her! is a woody, heady floral fragrance created by Sidonie Lancesseur and Michel Almairac (from Robertet). Arabian jasmine is brightened with pink peppercorn leading on to chestnut and vanilla notes. Femininity is reaffirmed with an intense, woody and milky base note of sandalwood, the Zadig & Voltaire signature.

“For this is her! I imagined a rock group playing a furious song in a Parisian apartment,” explains Almairac.

This is Him! is a woody oriental fragrance created by Nathalie Lorson and Aurélien Guichard (from Firmenich) which BPI describes as “a gentleman rocker with a leather-hard spirit”. Notes start with a spicy incense of grapefruit and black pepper, then a soft heart – half vanilla, half incense before also drying down to sandalwood.

SHADOWS AND LIGHT

The advertising and media campaigns focus on Paris at night, with photographer Fred Meylan snapping svelte French muse Joséphine Le Tutour and brooding model Sam Lammar. An advertising short film from Emmanuel Giraud features Tristan Casara, aka The Avener, the DJ, musician and producer of the exclusive title We Belong that accompanies the film.