a gentle woody note: santalum sourced from none other than
Australia. “The quality of Australian santalum is really upstanding,”
Nagel says. “I’m working with a company called Santanol, and
we’ve gotten to a stage where Hermès is going to have our own
plantation in Australia where every single tree is chosen by us.
We’re very proud to be working with these farmers.”
The fragrance also has a freshness that’s reflective of Venice’s
distinctive light. “The brightness of Venice is very peculiar and
special to me. Things look different because of the magical light,”
Nagel says. The rich amber-hue gradation of the bottle takes
meaning too, mimicking the garden’s protective ochre-coloured
walls. “The bottom of the bottle is meant to create a feeling of
closeness, of the protection that walls have.”
The Garden of Eden may have been Frederic Eden’s dream, and
Un Jardin Sur La Lagune Nagel’s, but Dumas insists the pairing is
a dream for Hermès too. “A dream is an incredibly powerful thing
in the human mind — we have such a concentration of emotion,
ideas and symbols in two or three seconds,” he muses. “This
perfume is like a dream, you will feel and experience in a split
second all that Christine has put into the creation of that fragrance.”
Venice itself, with its romantic winding canals, narrow streets
and centuries of storied history, became the perfect supporting
character in Nagel and Hermès’s dream. “The magic of Venice
possesses me,” she says. “People say that it’s the city of lovers, but
for me, it is the city of magic.”
Hermès Un Jardin Sur La Lagune eau de parfum, $180 (100ml).
All images: The
Garden of Eden.
This image: Hermès’s
Christine Nagel
visiting the grounds.BEAUTY