Stéphane Rolland has a cabinet full of perfumes. Not a tray. Not a shelf. A whole cabinet. “In the ’70s, I was testing everything,” he says. “I mixed my own compositions, layered scents… I couldn’t stay faithful to one.”
So when the couturier — known for sweeping silhouettes and architectural drama — found himself crafting a fragrance with Henry Jacques, it all felt like a reckoning. A chance to distil decades of memories, obsessions, and instincts into a single, deeply personal scent. “It was somewhere between therapy and a gastronomic course,” he says.
Created in close conversation with Anne-Lise Cremona, CEO of Henry Jacques, the fragrance is the product of a creative duet between the creators. A four-handed composition that moves between incense and orange zest, roses and tobacco, Paris and the Middle East. An union of tastes that still feels unmistakably Rolland.
Their meeting felt inevitable, at least as far as they’ve described it. “He was flamboyant, yet disarmingly sensitive,” says Cremona. “I saw in him a rare delicacy and profound humanity.” Rolland recalls the moment just as vividly: “I knew immediately that we would create something together. It was such a powerful and unique moment.”
The two had orbited each other for years, walking parallel paths shaped by their instinct and a shared resistance to compromise. Rolland, whose couture house launched in 2007 after a historic stint at Balenciaga, has always approached fashion as a form of storytelling. Cremona, heir to one of France’s most revered parfumeries, has carried the legacy of Henry Jacques into the future, marrying tradition with experimentation.
But it wasn’t until 2025 that their worlds formally merged. “This adventure only exists because it is her, and it is me,” says Rolland. The timing, it seems, was everything.
At first, creating a fragrance felt familiar, like drafting a couture silhouette. “You begin with a foundation, a fabric… and then it’s about contrasts and nuance, movement and emotion,” Rolland explains. But the process quickly revealed itself to be more intimate, and far more unpredictable. “I felt like a child learning to read or write again.”
Working with Henry Jacques meant peeling back layers of memory, of taste, of time. It meant rediscovering long-forgotten smells, challenging old preferences, and drawing connections between scent and self. “For once in my life, I am embracing the fullest extent of myself,” he says. “Perfume was the missing element in my expression. Perhaps it was destiny — perhaps it was always meant to unfold this way.”
And what does destiny smell like?
The fragrance opens with citrus. “I’m not a citrus person,” Rolland admits funnily enough, but sun-drenched orange felt right. It reminded him of sneaking into his father’s bar, breathing in the boozy sweetness of homemade punch. Then, the scent shifts: incense rises, soft and smoky, like the sacred stillness of temples he once visited in the Middle East.
In the heart: honeyed notes of Henry Jacques Rose de Mai and Turkish rose, warm and plush. Deeper still, tobacco, iris, and patchouli lend the scent its gravity; notes that pull from Rolland’s travels in South America and the West Indies, where fragrance clings differently in humid air.
Finally, vanilla. Not saccharine, but complex, green, leathery, and powdery. “It reminded me of my early years in Paris,” he says. “It had the traditional elegance of French perfumery, but with softness.”
The result is a chypre-oriental that feels both worldly and deeply grounded. Bold but comforting. “I do it for me. I do it for others,” he says. “Just as I have dedicated my life in Haute Couture to women, I dedicate this fragrance to anyone willing to embrace the emotions and convictions bottled within.”
The perfume comes in two forms: Les Essences and Les Brumes. The former is classic Henry Jacques — rich, pure, unapologetically concentrated. The latter offers more flexibility, thanks to the house’s signature interchangeable splash-and-spray top. “Only Henry Jacques possesses the subtlety and dedication to such intricate details, with a level of refinement that is almost lost today,” Rolland says. “Yet, paradoxically, their creations remain pure and essential.”
Both editions are now available exclusively in Henry Jacques boutiques, priced at €1975. Find out more here.
photography. Courtesy of Henry Jacques
words. Gennaro Costanzo
