Orris and Sand: La Collection Sabbie Mediterranee by Armani

by: Serguey Borisov

The Mediterranean sand beaches have become the starting point for the fashion collection Sabbia by Giorgio Armani Couture (Spring-Summer 2015) and for its fragrant interpretation La Sabbie Mediterranee Collection 2015. Sand, its soft fluid texture and light-and-shade-play of colors, and the sparks that show in sandy terrain, were embodied in two perfumes named Armani Privé Edition Couture Sable Or and Sable Fumé. The perfumes were released as a limited edition (just like haute couture fashion!): only 1000 bottles of each. They will be distributed throughout various countries in the world, so there will be only five bottles of each at  the official website.

Armani Privé Edition Couture Sable Or and Sable Fumé

The tradition of Armani Privé Edition Couture limited edition perfumes started in 2011 and has become a staple annual accompaniment for the women's Cruise or Spring-Summer collection of Armani Couture. The previous versions—chocolate gourmandLa Femme Bleue, milky musky La Femme Nacre, vetiver woody Nuances and jasmin rich Ombre & Lumière—were launched in smaller numbers, and in a very short time they all disappeared from the shelves and found their wealthy mistresses.

But we should mention that Armani Privé Edition Couture perfumes have their common “fragrant key”: the Florentine orris note. A typical Italian note, known from the hills of Tuscany—powdery, woody and translucent, weightless and still palpable, uncertain and persistent, noble and elegant. This is a nobility that manifests itself gradually. Being just excavated from soil, the iris rhizome is a tuber that looks like a hairy potato, and it smells quite like fresh carrots or potatoes. It must be peeled, dried and kept for several years at a constant temperature and humidity to achieve the desired chemical transformations. To get the noble product of orris absolute, reminiscent of the smell of powder with the color of sunset clouds, from the bitterness of this “hairy potato” takes time, knowledge, technical skills and experience.

Orris

There's an orris theme in the new perfume duo of La Sabbie Mediterranee too. InSable Or, the perfume of sunny bright sand, we can smell a matte, white, woody orris and fresh violet, both paired with light gourmand notes. The vanilla pods, cocoa beans and sweet milky sandalwood try to turn orris powder into a light marshmallow cloud in the chocolate skies. At the behest of perfumers Sophie Labbé and Nelly Hachem, the proportion of the gourmand chord is relatively small (compared to the orris) and resembles a warm scented breeze near a confectionery shop. So the warm orris ofSable Or barely flickers by the sweets (the tonka bean notes are especially distinguished), staying in the woody-mineral area, supported by white musks. The sillage is not particularly long, but due to the high concentration it has quite impressive resilience.

Sable Fumé, the perfume of a darker shade of sand, takes as allies the vigorous berry sharpness of pink pepper first, then the clear essence of incense, and finally a little damp, delicate suede. The resinous and even green character of Sable Fumé appears gradually over several hours. As a result, not a smoky or smoked, but a chic, fresh and energetic fragrance with an almost masculine sporty figure (and probably with esoteric and pleasant thoughts) emerges. You can smell the paint and varnish motifs, some colophony powder, some fresh damp mushrooms, some sweet tree saps and the marine salted ambroxan. The green and spicy parts are quite unexpected for a pensive meditative orris aristocrat, which is usually imagined with incense-scented fingers (a certain relationship with the wet sand smell still could be smelled). Thanks for this should be addressed to perfumer Nicolas Beaulieu—although orris with incense is probably the most frequently performed duet in niche perfumery since its start. For example, I just wanted to file Sable Fumé in the incense collection Comme Des Garçons Series 3: Incense , and leave it near Incense Zagorsk. We could call it Incense: Saint-Petersburg.

Giorgio Armani Armani Privé Sable Or

Notes: Orris Concrete, Orris Resinoid, Cocoa, Vanilla, Tonka beans, Violet, Sandalwood, Benzoin.

Giorgio Armani Armani Privé Sable Fumé 

Notes: Suede, Frankincense, Orris, Ambroxan, Benzoin, Resins.