Interview with Dominique Ropion: Portrait of a Perfumer

In the bustling atmosphere of Milan Design Week, where the lines between design, art, and experience blur, I had the pleasure of sitting down with master perfumer Dominique Ropion. Known for crafting some of the most iconic scents of our time, including the modern classic Portrait of a Lady, Ropion is as meticulous as he is instinctive – a true artisan whose work transcends mere fragrance to become olfactory storytelling.On the occasion of Portrait of a Lady’s 15th-anniversary exhibition, in a conversation that meandered from childhood memories of strawberry cakes to the bold artistic choices behind a limited-edition bottle, Ropion shared the philosophy, vision, and quiet rebellion that shape his creative process.

What’s your first olfactory memory?

My first olfactory memory belongs to my childhood: it’s the smell of toys, but also the strawberry cakes my grandmother used to do. I’m sure everybody has my same first olfactory memories, though!

Yeah, I think my first memories are food and dolls, too, together with my mother’s perfume. Speaking of Portrait of a Lady, your iconic fragrance is more than just a fragrance – it’s a statement. What was the original vision behind its creation?

It’s funny because I once created a perfume called Geranium Pour Monsieur before Portrait of a Lady, but it didn’t have much success [laughs]. Frédéric [Malle] used to wear it, though, and one day he told me, “In the dry zone there is something very nice, you can do something for a woman”.

With Frédéric, it’s always this kind of exchange: we have some idea, we discuss it, consider all the options and possibilities, and then we go. He’s very straightforward in his criticism and feedback.

I met Frédéric last year for an interview and that’s exactly what I imagined.

Yeah! So, it started like that, it started from the dry zone of Geranium pour Monsieur, but with rose absolute instead of geranium.

With 400 Turkish roses in every 100ml bottle, this perfume is a celebration of excess and refinement. How did you balance such an opulent composition?

Yes, 400 roses were used to make three types of extraction: one to get the typical rose oil, one to get a rose absolute with a treatment by molecular distillation, and the third one to get rose oil with a low metallurgy process. It’s a lot of roses and the balance is a delicate and technical process.

You said that a good perfume must always be explicit. In what way does Portrait of a Lady embody this idea?

It’s difficult to explain, but when I work around an accord, what I want to find is something with a strong identity, something that you can distinguish from something else that already exists on the market, of course. With Portrait of a Lady, at the end of the process we got something very strong that we can recognize immediately – but you know, it took so many attempts before getting what we were looking for.

I smelled it a while ago, and I realized that it’s really such a unique and contrasting fragrance. It’s classic and modern, delicate yet powerful, often associated with strength, confidence, and sensuality. If Portrait of a Lady were a woman, what would she be like?

It probably depends on the moment when she’s wearing it.

Does the smell change according to the skin of the person who wears it?

I think this might just be a common belief because I’m not sure it’s so different from one skin to another. But the way people wear the perfume, I think, makes a difference. It’s more the emotions emanating from the person who wears the perfume that gives it the feelings you mentioned than vice versa.

Right. Speaking of the Portrait of a Lady 15th-anniversary exhibition at Milan Design Week: it merges perfume, art, and femininity. How does this project reflect the essence of the fragrance?

I think it’s always also difficult to make connections between different kinds of art, especially fragrance and photography. But once again, it really depends on the people who experience the art: we can all see different connections and emotions.

You know, when I work on a fragrance, I mainly work on aesthetics, so on its shape. That’s what is important for me, I don’t really think about emotions, although I feel them of course smelling a fragrance, as you and everybody do, but I don’t think about that, about whether a perfume will be good or not for some kind of mood.

I just want to create something aesthetic that we can easily recognize.

“What I want to find is something with a strong identity, something that you can distinguish from something else that already exists on the market”

And the new limited-edition bottle is so recognizable and unique, with its bold lacquered red design. Why was this color chosen?

I was surprised the first time I saw that limited-edition bottle, but I think it’s very nice especially because it’s the emblematic color of the Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle packaging and brand in general, so it was a good idea to use this iconic color on Portrait of a Lady.

Speaking of which, you’ve created many iconic fragrances for Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle. Where does Portrait of a Lady stand in your body of work?

It’s one of the steps among all the others I’ve made. Even if it were not a great success, it would still be a step forward, so it’s very important.

And what do you see in your future?

As soon as I start to work on a new project for this brand, I think I will see better what could happen in the future. Right now, though, I don’t know anything about it. Like even when I created Vetiver Extraordinaire, I didn’t see what could be the next one. I guess I live in the moment.

In a world where mass-market fragrances dominate, how important is it to preserve artistic freedom in perfumery?

It’s very important. You know, this sector of perfumery Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle belongs to, for example, brings something new each time, and afterwards the mass market is inspired by it, which means that it needs this type of luxury perfumery. So, it’s vital to preserve our freedom.

What do you think makes a fragrance unique and timeless?

What makes a fragrance unique is its identity – as soon as you have created a perfume that you can recognize immediately, you have something already existing with its identity, and that’s good.

Timeless means that it’s still fashionable even after years.

It’s like painting: abstract painting is different from the art that came decades later, but it’s still there and still much appreciated. For perfume it’s the same: even if a fragrance was created and sold years ago, it’s still there because it has its own identity that goes beyond the fashion of the moment.

Where do you seek creativity in your everyday life, to translate it, then, also into your work?

I love art, I love painting, I love music. I don’t directly find inspiration in these, but they’re probably what feeds me. As well as life, real life is inspiring. Then, of course, technically speaking, what is very important as a source of inspiration is training, to learn and to study very closely and deeply all the great classics in perfumery starting from Mitsuko, Shalimar, Charles V, etcetera. This is a great source of inspiration too.

What was, in your career, your biggest act of rebellion?

Every time I work. Every time you work on something, you have to go against yourself, you have to find something new, and this is a kind of rebellion, I think – doing something that isn’t too similar to something already existing.

This is the only way of rebellion that can relate to this kind of art: you don’t need to make something completely wild because “wild” doesn’t mean anything if it’s bad, you need to make something with a lot of construction and that’s unexpected.

I think perfumes are also a way to make you feel more confident – you smell good, and you feel good in your body and in the world. What does it mean for you to feel comfortable in your own skin?

That’s a very hard question. I think in order to feel good you need to take care of yourself, and life experience can help. Also, you don’t have to be too shy. I remember I was very shy when I was young, and life was very difficult because of that. Getting older, you also get less shy, so you feel more comfortable, and you don’t really care anymore about what the other people think about you, what you do and what you say. Do you see what I mean?

You finally understand that if you make some mistakes, it’s okay.

What’s your happy place?

I love the street, I love to walk streets. In the street, you feel so many smells and I love that so much. Milan, for example? I love it, even if it’s so busy because that’s part of “the street”.

Thanks to Estée Lauder Companies.