Serge Lutens is a poet of words and scents. He launches his high perfumery creations with poems or a poetic short story about his life. They are as mysterious as his fragrances and their names: Femininité du Bois, Tubéreuse criminelle, L’orpheline. The ingredients are never fully revealed, not even to journalists. For over 40 years, Serge Lutens has been celebrated as one of the world’s most innovative perfume creators, make-up artists and stylists.
La Couche du diable, Serge Lutens’ latest perfume, is inspired by sin. It is a “diabolical and sumptuous veil of indulgence and remorse for a first transgression”.
The story? “Red tights covering the body and head and a long black open cape: his costume exudes evil. A face emerging from beneath the hood, with raised eyebrows slanting upwards from the top of the nose to the highest points of the temple: Satan grimaces. Just as a Death’s skull no longer frightens us, this outdated image passed down to us over the ages no longer represents the proclivity to sin. It is said that he who profits from crime is guilty of it. But can an innocent person admit guilt ? And yet…”
No longer does one need to go to Hell to summon the Devil
“When the vase perched on the mantelpiece fell, the muffled sound of glass hitting the carpet made the mother come running. The child still had the offending doily in his hands when she came. She carefully laid the vase out flat on her two scooped hands as if it were a sacred offering to the gods. She began muttering a seemingly endless monologue:
– I can’t believe it; I can’t believe it!
Her voice was hollow. Did she even know she was speaking? Perhaps she was addressing the crack that had emerged in her life.
– I can’t believe it…
But it was just a vase. Never in living memory had a single stalk or stem of a bouquet bloomed in its waters.
– Look what you’ve done!
She glared pointedly at the fingers that clutched the edges of the doily. For a four or five-year old, each thing has a soul.
– And what’s this? she said, gesturing at the lace.
– It was hanging down over the edge of the mantelpiece. It wasn’t me; it was my hand! It’s the vase that fell…
She went silent but the child never forgot the stinging reproach. He was filled with remorse. Here lies the lair of the devil; he lies asleep on burning embers.”
THE FIRST OUD PERFUME BY SERGE LUTENS
How can one attend the coronation of Satan without ever once having tasted sin? Oud and labdanum come together to create a diabolical and sumptuous veil of indulgence and remorse for a first transgression.
Dante, the author of the Divine Comedy, would have loved La Couche du Diable…
La Couche du Diable is the first oud perfume by Serge Lutens. His Black Collection features a few precious oriental fragrances, but oud was never the main ingredient.
The perfume is available from 14 June 2019 at the Palais Royal and Saint-Honoré boutiques of Serge Lutens. From September 2019, the perfume will be available in selective perfumeries and department stores.
VIDEO: LA COUCHE DU DIABLE BY SERGE LUTENS
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Check out the latest new fragrances for fall and winter 2019.
