Interview. Master perfumer Roja Dove: ”I didn’t really care what other people were doing; I never did, because you can’t care”

Madison Absolute Beauty, the first luxury perfumery in Romania, celebrated 10 years since its launch on the local market with a series of festive events and actions. The most important moment of the anniversary was the launch of two special fragrances created exclusively for its clients in Romania, by the master perfumer Roja Dove. BR met with him to learn more about the person behind the huge international success of the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie brand.

 Romanita Oprea

When did you discover your passion for perfumes and how did it shape your professional path?

When I was six or seven years old, I was lying in bed and my mother came to me. She was going to a cocktail party wearing an evening dress and gave me a kiss goodnight; I still remember her perfume and her dress. It was the first time I made a connection between smell and a moment. Therefore, I always say that that was when I was put on the path which I was going to walk on.

When I was a young teenager, I used to spend all of my pocket money on bottles of perfume, which is quite a strange thing for a young boy to do. I could only afford very small bottles, but perfume for me was always like releasing a genie. I’ve always felt that you are opening it and you have no idea where it will take you.

And then, a woman that I used to know became the director of a very important perfume company. I’d been writing to this French house trying to find out its story, its history. It was owned by three cousins and one of them asked this friend of mine: “Who is Roja Dove?” She asked why and he answered that he was fed up of receiving faxes and phone calls requesting information. And then she said: “Why don’t you give him a job? He will be less trouble working for you.” Today, I don’t know if the same thing would happen, because companies are different, the world is different, but they employed me. Not to be a perfumer, but to develop a perfumery training course. Which was marvelous. Suddenly, I was paid to go down to the South of France to learn about all of the raw materials. Because of the company importance, I had a red carpet put in front of me every time. I was a young man and it felt like I was in heaven.

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What were the next big moments in your career, in your opinion?

It became clear quite fast that I had a good sense of smell and I worked for this house for 20 years and in 2001, I left. In the beginning of 2002, I was wondering how I wanted to come back to the world of perfumery and, while invited to a dinner party, I was asked by the host if I could make a perfume for a very important charity, as an auction lot. When everybody at the table stopped and looked at me, I realized I would actually love to do it, as the auction is a very important event that happens every year, once a year, in the oldest auction room in the world. The auction house is called Christies. Then I got in contact with the people that did the bottle Lotion Bleu in 1985 for an art fair and I asked that, if they still had the mold, if they would redo the bottle for me. I explained the context (the importance of the auction, the charity purpose – against HIV/AIDS, etc.) and I thought that if I put the bottle up, if somebody liked it and wanted a certain perfume in it then they will spend more money because the perfume could be what they wanted. It was up against a holiday for 6 in the Maldives and a new Mercedes sports car, and in this context, mine fetched the biggest amount of money. Something that, of course, made me very happy.

It was really interesting as nobody was doing this. It wasn’t an idea to do it more, it was purely for the charity, but the person’s partner who bought the lot, decided they also had to have a perfume for themselves. This is how I got my first customer and I decided that this is what I wanted to do. I was  going to do bespoke perfume, which is still a very important part of my work.

Around the same time, I was invited to Harrods, the department store, for a cup of tea and, literally, before I even sat down, they proposed that I open a perfumery with them. Opening a shop wasn’t in my plans, but by the end of the cup of tea, I came up with the idea of opening a shop which had, additionally, those that I thought were the best made perfumes in the world. When we opened the perfumery, it was the first time in the world that somebody would go to the perfume houses, say what fragrances they were interested in, and have them re-done for them. It was a risk, because the industry wasn’t about this and we offered something completely different. How I explained it to a journalist was like the difference between pret-a-porter and couture. It was like haute perfumery. And, as I said the name, I decided that this was the way we were going to call it: Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie. It was the first time something was called Haute Parfumerie. Today, every perfumery that opens is called this.

The reason I empathize with Madeleine (Madeleine Florescu, Madison Absolute Beauty owner) is that I understand this perfumery very well. She opened her business two years after I opened mine and the concept was very similar. And you have to educate the customer, because what you are doing is not the same as everybody else.

The next chapter started in 2009. I have a very close friend that I see maybe once or twice a year and we always do this glamorous thing: we go to Claridge’s Hotel and have a simple meal with a beautiful wine. In 2009 when we met, my mother had just died and, even though I thought I was dealing well for the outside world, my friend gave me the best 3-hour-long metaphoric slap in the face. She pointed out to me that I was spending my whole life curating and promoting everybody else’s work, but when was I going to do it for myself?

When I left, I called my partner and told him I’d just had the best conversation of my career and I wanted to launch a commercial brand of perfumery. And the reason I did it was because my mother, who was one the most upbeat people you’ve ever met, only said one thing that would upset her: with this generation my family name dies. Therefore, I decided I could leave a legacy behind with my family name. And so, in 2011, we launched Roja Perfume. I told the buyer at Harrods, she wanted to know more and then she told me she wanted to stock it in the main perfumery. But, never having done that before, I had to ask her how many to create for Harrods. She gave me the amount and told me it would last between four and six months. I did just that, but in just 10 days we sold every last one of the bottles. In 10 days we’d had the most successful launch in Harrods history up to that time and we still hold the record. Within six months, we became the number 1 selling brand in that shop.

And I am really proud of that, especially because we are a privately owned company and it means that David beat Goliath.

What do you think drove your success that fast?

First of all, I think it’s really important to understand that my industry had been bought by the detergent industry. In the beginning there were some very small, beautiful, perfumery companies and some which were bigger, due to their success. Old fashioned brands in the 80s and 90s were bought by conglomerates, three of which were detergent manufacturers, who were brilliant at marketing and made classic perfumery seem very old fashioned. Everything is about the era it’s in.

When we launched, we did it at a price point of GBP 295 and GBP 450, in an industry where the average price was GBP 25. I didn’t really care what other people were doing; I never did, because you can’t care. If you don’t stand for something, why would anybody be loyal or even look at you in the first place? I know very little about many things, but what I know quite a lot about is perfumery. And astonishingly, I have spent most of my work-life travelling: meeting sales people, meeting customers and, in doing it, you really have a feeling for what people look for. I don’t sit in an office, I don’t have some marketing plan drawn up by somebody else, I decide how the perfume will be, how it will smell. It’s my personal point of view, my take.

My brand is six years old now and we’re sold in 170 places around the world, in about 36-37 countries and it’s self-funded. We’ve never taken a loan and I am very proud of that. Moreover, the UK has a campaign called “The Great Britain campaign” and about three years ago I was invited to 10 Downing Street, where I received the invitation to be an Ambassador for the UK for the creative work. I was extremely surprised because I had no idea these people knew I existed or even knew anything about the work I do and, especially to acknowledge that the work I do is important for my country. I was extremely proud of that moment.

How do you find your inspiration? Do you ever get stuck on an idea and can’t find a solution?

Sometimes. Rarely. I think that if you start with an idea and you get stuck it’s like writing, what you need to do is throw it away and start again with a fresh sheet of paper. I think the best work is that which comes totally intuitively. If it comes clear and fast, it’s typically really good.

I don’t just sit and think that I have to come up with an idea. I go out, I read, I meet somebody. Ideas can come in many ways. Sometimes, it can simply be a word. I have a women’s perfume called Scandal, so it’s usually about sex or money or a combination of the two. Scandals are about making moral judgments. Where there is a scandal, there’s a lot of volume, of noise. Therefore, I needed to make a perfume with a lot of volume, something sensual, because of the sex bit, so it had to be a white flower, a tuberose, and money. The flower itself, before you process it, costs the same as gold. Most likely no customer knows that, but it’s the root of the story.

I also have a perfume called Innuendo, which I think is a great name for a perfume. An innuendo has to be something really soft, like a whisper. Therefore, names can inspire.

So how do ideas come? Sometimes it’s because I get asked to do certain things that make me stop and think, and sometimes something just floats into my mind.