Frédéric Malle on the Power of Reinvention at Estée Lauder

Frédéric Malle has had it with fragrance flankers. The concept refers to a brand’s variation of an existing perfume that retains some of the original’s notes and attributes. “Brands will take a fragrance and produce very different scents from it, which I think is quite unsettling for customers,” says Malle over a video call. “They think they’re giving a certain perfume to their wife only to discover it smells like somebody else.”

Malle is the iconic “Éditeur de Parfums” behind the 24-year-old perfume house Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, but his latest project is the Legacy Collection for Estée Lauder, where he has been tasked with doing what he does best: editing, reinventing and innovating.

The collection features five of the most trail-blazing and historically significant Estée Lauder fragrances — Knowing, White Linen, Azurée, Estée and Private Collection — reimagined and modernized by today’s most prestigious perfumers, under Malle’s guidance.

But make no mistake about it: These are no spinoff scents.

“We’re not making flankers with the Legacy Collection,” says Malle. “We’re putting the formulas into focus. By that, I mean shortening them and removing all the parts that are not crucial to their impact. That haziness, which may have been acceptable in the ’60s, feels wrong in today’s more-precise world. With the Legacy Collection, it’s as if the perfumes have been Photoshopped to be crisper, shinier and more beautiful. But they’re still the same perfumes. In fact, when you simplify a formula, each ingredient that remains glows more.”

Malle says that this light-handed, refined touch is his way of paying homage to the original scents and maintaining their integrity.

“We saw this as a restoration job and worked like perfume Historians — because they are historic scents. Mrs. Lauder had such a massive impact in the world of perfumery, and I feel that’s been largely forgotten — not by those of us who work in perfumes, of course. She’s still very much a part of our conversations. So it wasn’t about indulging myself and making unnecessary changes to her masterpieces. I wouldn’t dare do that.”

Malle explains that decades ago, fragrances were formulated with long ingredient lists because perfumers would use bases rather than formulating ingredient by ingredient. “With bases — which you can think of as premixed mini perfumes that contain five or 10 ingredients each — perfumers couldn’t be quite as precise,” he says. “They might have had a 10-ingredient base, but they only really needed five of those ingredients. So what we did with the Legacy Collection was remove any that were unnecessary.”

But don’t let the simple explanation fool you; the process required hundreds of rounds of trial and error. “It’s similar to listening to an old 78 RPM record,” explains Malle. “It has so much blur that while you might love the singer’s voice, you almost have to search for it. With these reimagined fragrances, it’s like we’ve created a very precise, sharp recording. It’s still the same song — the same music — but now you feel like you’re in the room with the singer.”

Take Five

Introducing the reimagined scents that make up Estée Lauder’s Legacy Collection.

Azurée

“Its herbaceous green top and middle notes — cumin, cardamom and clary sage — make this a perfume for everyday life,” says Malle. “You can wear it in any circumstance.”

White Linen

“This is the femme fatale of the group,” declares Malle. “It might seem a bit distant at first, but the more it lingers, the more you notice its power.”

Private Collection

“I had friends and family members who wore this in the past, so I knew it quite well,” says Malle of the floral green scent with notes of patchouli, sandalwood and musk.

Knowing

Malle describes this chypre floral with notes of redcurrant, damask rose and amber as “super sexy.”

Estée

“I was intrigued by this one because there’s so much ylang-ylang in the formula,” says Malle. “It comes across a bit innocent at first, but it’s quite sophisticated. Once you’re in its spell, you can’t get away.”

This article first appeared in FASHION’s September 2024 issue. Find out more here.