number 46 may 2012 • 5 GUERLAIN être 1912. L’Heure Bleue [ The 10 creations that epitomise our Maison ] In late afternoon in the summer of 1911, Jacques Guerlain was walking along the banks of the River Seine. It was between daylight and dusk, the hum of Paris had lessened and the air was filled with the fragrance of flow- ers. The entire sky took on a particular shade of blue, darker than the usual sky blue. “I was smitten with a feeling so intense that I could only express it with a perfume”, he said. And this sentimental perfume could only have one, poetic, intriguing name : L’Heure Bleue (the “blue hour”). It was the Belle Epoque. A period of peace and growth, fostering the development of an abundant artistic scene. Paris, a modern urban city, was the centre of this brilliant, carefree life. Yet the Belle Epoque was run- ning out of steam and nearing a close, the world was becoming crazy and war was rum- bling in the distance. Jacques Guerlain relates how he sensed this imminent catastrophe. “The sun had set but night had not yet fallen. It was the uncertain hour. In a light of the deepest blue, everything – the rustling of leaves, the lapping of the Seine – seemed to express love, a caress and infinite tenderness. Man is suddenly in harmony with the tangible world, in a moment of time: the time of a perfume.” At the time, Jacques Guerlain had been a perfumer for over twenty years. He admired Impressionist painters and collected their works. In the same way as a succession of touches of colour vary according to the light on an Impressionist canvas, the olfactory notes of his perfumes play the bars of an unusual score of music on the skin. Although he sensed the disorder invading the world, he wanted to pay glowing hom- age to his wife, Lily Guerlain, whose look and beauty fascinated him, and declare his passion with a unique perfume. Lily Guerlain wore L’Heure Bleue all her life, like an invisible signature, her aura. L’Heure Bleue was the last romantic fer- vour of these dark times, the last peacetime perfume that sounded the death knell of a bygone era. Jacques Guerlain expressed his passion with this floral/oriental perfume. Jacques Guerlain wanted to pay glowing homage to his wife, Lily Guerlain, whose look and beauty fascinated him, and declare his passion with a unique perfume.