Photo: Courtesy of Guerlain
If ever there were a context most suitable to the phrase ‘reeks of money’, it would be the VIP preview of a global art fair — Art Basel, for example. Care for a whiff? Well, for that, you’ll have to head to Paris next week, where the freshly rebranded Art Basel Paris opens on 16 October at the refurbished Grand Palais. We aren’t speaking figuratively, though. This year, the art fair behemoth has attempted to distill the event’s essence into a limited-edition scent by Parisian perfume house Guerlain.
The world’s first art fair-branded fragrance, the 2,000-bottle run of Guerlain’s Œillet Pourpre, will be available exclusively via the Art Basel Shop, the itinerant retail concept curated by Sarah Andelman, which debuted back in June at the fair’s Basel edition. The scent — “a daring, ultra-elegant yet sultry fragrance that can be worn by all genders”, Ann-Caroline Prazan, Guerlain’s director of art, culture and heritage, explains — will be presented in a flask and box designed by French painter Julie Beaufils, an artist collaboratively selected by both partners.