She prefers evocation to shock, transparency to overload, grace to fuss.
Some women sculpt the world with words, others with colours. Françoise Caron, on the other hand, models it with scents.
Born in a France still shrouded in the fumes of the past, she learned very early on to breathe differently - to smell, really, as others learn to see.
Born into a family where perfume was more than a profession, almost an inheritance - her brother Jean-Claude Ellena was also to become a great nose - she found her own language in raw materials.
Her vocation was not born in laboratories, but in nature: in the smell of an orange being peeled, of a garden after rain, of the still-warm fabric of a loved body.
Trained at the prestigious Roure perfumery school, she knew very early on that her fragrance would be one of freshness, clarity and naked emotion.
In 1979, she composed Eau d'Orange Verte for Hermès, a luminous masterpiece that would become a cult - and her signature.
Each of her creations is born of a memory or a sensory burst, like an olfactory haiku.
Her art is not about power, but evidence.
She works for some of the biggest names: Mugler, Diptyque, Comme des Garçons, and yet retains the humility of a craftsman in tune with the material.
At Takasago, where she stayed for a long time, she creates by instinct, letting contrasts speak for themselves: the acidic greenness, the warmth of spices, the woody tenderness.
Françoise Caron doesn't compose perfumes: she tells stories.
She prefers evocation to shock, transparency to overload, grace to fuss.
She loves citrus fruits, simplicity and purity.
Her perfumes speak volumes.
