Inside the Magical World of APOM, The Latest From Maison Francis Kurkdjian

“I wanted everyone to be able to crumple up a leaf, put their nose to it and remember that the olfactory world is all around us,” says French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. We’re seated at an intimate dinner by the Perfumer’s Garden — Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s partnership with the Palace of Versailles — outside the Châteauneuf Orangery, at the heart of Versailles’s Estate of Trianon. Earlier that day, I spent the afternoon exploring the Perfumer’s Garden, which opened in 2023.

“Versailles holds a very special place in my heart,” says Kurkdjian. “I have a long history here. I studied at ISIPCA, the perfumery school here, and I danced at the Château de Versailles. I wanted to give back to Versailles what it had given me in terms of inspiration and wonder.”

In the garden, guests have the chance to explore more than 300 different plants and flowers that honour the rich history of fragrance. “The goal was to arouse visitors’ wonder at the multitude of flowers and scents while simultaneously connecting them with the history of the site,” he explains.

Connecting with the past seems to be a recurring theme for the perfumer these days. Kurkdjian’s latest launch for his eponymous brand is APOM (which stands for A Part of Me), a nod to his own past. Maison Francis Kurkdjian fans may recognize the name — it previously belonged to two separate scents by the fragrance house, APOM Pour Femme and APOM Pour Homme, which launched back in 2009.

“I have the freedom to revisit my own legacy,” he says. The new scent is a merging of the two previous formulas, combining lavender and orange blossom over a sweet amber base. “For the new APOM, I took the best of both: the feminine version’s sunny sensuality and the masculine version’s elegant addictiveness.”

Over dinner, I ask Kurkdjian about his creative process and the order in which he works. Does he first commit to a particular ingredient and build from there? Or does he imagine the type of scent he’s after and then work backwards? The answer, I’m surprised to learn, is neither. “I’m driven by the story,” he says. “First I think of a name, and then I seek a feeling that matches.”

For Kurkdjian, the story of APOM is intertwined with the story of perfumery at its core: “It’s a part of yourself that you leave with others.”

Maison Francis Kurkdjian APOM Eau de Parfum

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