Louis Vuitton: Myriad
A singular dialogue between architecture and perfume.
More than a collaboration, a shared work by two leading contemporary artists.
In 2021, the Maison Louis Vuitton orchestrated an exceptional meeting between its Master Perfumer, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, and the legendary architect Frank Gehry. From that encounter was born an extraordinary collection that elevates perfume to the level of high art. With Myriad, this collection today is enriched by a new creation in homage to a monumental ingredient in perfumery.
As the ultimate expression of perfume, the Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Collection embodies the harmony between two creatives guided by a shared obsession. A common leitmotiv, the thread running through their life’s work: breaking free of convention to create pure emotion.
An Ode to Nature
Through the Les Extraits Collection, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud and Frank Gehry explore an essential point of convergence in their respective callings: the omnipresent inspiration of Nature. An ode to its fabulous diversity, Myriad pays tribute to the extraordinary colour palette of Life in a shimmering trail of infinite nuances.
“She is our guide,” Master Perfumer attests. “Frank and I both love the wind that gusts through the world around us. We love movement and fluidity, two notions that are at the heart of the Les Extraits Collection.”
A pioneer of biomimicry in art, Frank Gehry has always looked to Nature for inspiration. In addition to its beauty and infinite diversity of models, Nature also makes it possible to create sustainable architecture that is adapted to the challenges of today’s world.
For his part, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud exemplifies a profession that is inseparable from nature and its treasures. From Les Fontaines Parfumées in the heart of his native Grasse, he works daily with ingredients from near and far. Through essences of flowers, herbs, spices and wood, Nature provides him with both the materials for his art and the ideal of harmony that underpins all his creations.
Jacques Cavallier Belletrud set out to reinvent perfume in its noblest form. The aim was to give the extract a contemporary expression that was attuned to the 21st century. Inspired by the principle of the expansion of the Universe, the Master Perfumer sought to stretch and reshape the Extrait. To give it outward momentum from within. To coax light into it. A breath of fresh air.
A proud native of Grasse, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud inaugurated the Les Extraits Collection with five creations that revisit as many major themes in modern perfumery. A tribute to the history of an art that, as the son and grandson of a perfumer, courses through his veins. A way of celebrating heritage, while also redefining its contours.
The bottle: Movement captured by Frank Gehry
The perfume bottle was one of the few territories that Frank Gehry, one of the greatest living masters of architecture, had not yet approached. In answer to olfactory creations by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, Gehry imagined a dynamic, fluid form that seems unbound by the laws of physics. Free floating, in sum.
Taking as his starting point the original bottle by designer Marc Newson for Parfums Louis Vuitton, Frank Gehry began by stretching its lines into curves. From there, he designed a spectacular hood, like an imaginary flower, whose foundations he shaped by crumpling a sheet of aluminum in his hands. This ephemeral,
now eternal, form reflects both technical and aesthetic prowess. A work of art in its own right, both sculptural and ethereal.
“I gravitate toward more vibrant colors - the ones that are very saturated. It just turns your brain on in a different way.“
— Frank Gehry
Available at Louis Vuitton stores
