M/M, A Retrospective

M/MINK

“The perfume industry is a money-making industry. One almost forgets that perfume is an extremely poetical object. A good perfume encloses an infinite world within a bottle. Because we were obsessed in reactivating this dimension of perfume, we decided to reverse the usual process of receiving a brief from a client. Perfume companies always approach us with a scent that we have to illustrate, producing an image of the world the perfume is supposed to represent. This exercise is often deceptive as the perfume companies really struggle to grasp the world they want to describe. Perfume companies are very good at producing scents but not images. Therefore, we decided to approach a perfume company and bring 3 images that depicted a world we imagined. In return, this company would create a smell translating this imaginary vision. When we met Ben Gohram, founder of Byredo Parfums, we knew he was the perfect person to get excited by this project. It took him 8 months to come up with the M/MINK scent. Our first reaction when we first smelled it was beyond expectations. It is a true invention. We were finally able to create four advertising images for M/MINK. Limited editions of the posters of this campaign are available on our website.”

CREDIT: M/M (Paris) M/MINK, 2010. Fragrance concept and art by M/M (Paris) With Byredo Parfums. Courtesy mmparis.com