Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the most innovative professional or business founder nominated from throughout the entire global beauty industries. The award is given to distinguished change maker who have demonstrated risk-taking talent and tenacity to reshape our sector. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given on occasion to an individual whose achievements tower as an example of entrepreneurship and social responsibility.
The 2018 Life Achievement Award will be given to Jean-Claude Ellena.
Biography
The perfumer
Jean-Claude Ellena was born in Grasse on April 7th 1947. His father was a perfumer and when Jean-Claude was 16 he started working at Antoine Chiris, one of the oldest firms in Grasse, which no longer exists today but used to specialise in producing natural materials for the perfume industry. In 1968 he enrolled at the newly formed Givaudan perfumery school in Geneva.
Now a recognised perfumer, he went to work first in the USA and then in Paris, creating a whole string of successful perfumes including First (1976) for Van Cleef & Arpels, l’Eau parfumée (1992) for Bulgari, In Love Again for Yves Saint Laurent (1998) and Déclaration (1998) for Cartier. He also worked for “niche” brands such as L’Artisan Parfumeur (Bois Farine, Ambre Extrême), The Different Company (Bois d’Iris, Osmanthus, Bergamote and Rose Poivrée) and Frédéric Malle (Angelique sous la pluie, Cologne Bigarade, L’Eau d’Hiver).
In 2004 he was appointed exclusive in-house perfumer at Hermès and created the Hermessences collection, which is only sold in Hermès stores, the Jardins collection, the Colognes collection and the Terre d’Hermès (2006), Voyage d’Hermès (2010) et Jour d’Hermès (2012) fragrances. In 2016 he took on the role of fragrance consultant at Hermès. He retired on January 4th 2018.
The writer
In 2003 Jean-Claude Ellena and the author Josette Gontier wrote Mémoire du Parfum, which was published by Equinoxe. In September 2007 he published the new perfume volume in the Presses Universitaires de France Que sais-je ? series, updating the first edition published in 1980 by the perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, who was one of Jean-Claude’s biggest influences. The Que sais-je ? series has been translated into English and German. In 2011 he published The Diary of a Nose, which has been translated into nine languages including English, Italian, German and Portuguese. In 2013 Jean-Claude published La Note Verte with Éditions Sabine Wespieser and in 2017 L’Ecrivain d’Odeurs for the Éditions Contrepoint Nez-littérature collection.
Other information
Jean-Claude Ellena is president of the Association des Amis du Musée de la Parfumerie de Grasse and scientific advisor to the Grand Musée du Parfum in Paris. He is also director of the Association des Amis de Jean Giono and teaches at the Institut Français de la Mode.
Interviews et press reviews
Radio
-France- Inter : Le Grand Entretien de François Busnel, Mai 2011
-France-Inter : Mots et merveilles de Dorothée Barba , Milles et uns parfums, Mai 2013
-France Inter : Le Nouveau rendez vous, 13 juin 2016.
-France Culture : Reportage : La sueur en héritage de Stéphane Bonnefoi et Vincent Abouchar, Juin 2006. Rediffusion aout 2013.
-France Culture : Hors Champs, Laure Adler, le 9/4/2010
-France Culture : Les Cinq Sens, d’Arnaud Deshayes, Le parfum, 28/8/2011
-France Culture : La Grand Table de Caroline Broué, Ellena et Roellinger, 28/5/2013
-France Culture : Carnet Nomade de Colette Fellous, Parfum d’Hiver, 15/2/2014
-France Culture : Le carnet d’Or d’ Augustin Trapenard, La Note Verte, Juin 2013
-France Culture :Ping-pong, Mathilde Serrell Martin Quenehen, 27 avril 2016
-France culture : La petite musique de jean Claude Ellena, Création on air, 14 Décembre 2016
-France Musique : Musique émoi ; Elsa Boublil, 19 fevrier 2017 ( rediffusé depuis )
Selected articles
-Libération, 26 juin 2006 : « Odeur, compositeur.
-Der Spiegel N°37/2012 : « Ich riech mit meinem Gehirn »
-Wall street Journal, october 28/2011 : « A french perfumer’s seductive sense » by L. Goodman
-Financial Time, 2 october 2011 : « How to spent it » L. van der Post.
-Le Monde, 17juin 2011 : « Le parfum est une réflexion une mise en forme »
-Libération, 1 octobre 2017: « qu’importe le flacon »
Contributions to publications
-Pavillon France , Jacques Ferrier architecte, Shangai expo 2010, L’odeur des villes, page 108/109 , éditions Archibooks.
-Esthétiques du quotidien en Chine, IFM éditions Regard,2016, La Fabrique d’un parfum, page 97-109
-La voie des sens , Hermès la revue, N°74 , CNRS Editions, 2016, Le parfum ou la création comme un récit, page 98 à 101
-Le Bois, Savoir et faire, Éditions Acte sud , Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, 2015, Le Bois que l’on sent, Page 350 à 358
-The Perfect Scent, Chandler Burr, Macmillan Publisher, 2008
The winner will be awarded during the Awards Ceremony on March 16th 2018 at 6.00 p.m. @ Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna