Roja Dove: from Claridges to the Kremlin via Mecca

Roja Dove is the man who brought credibility and refinement back to a fragrance industry all but defeated by facile celebrity marketing opportunities and supermarket synthetics. The most quoted authority in the history of fragrance, he was the first non-family member to hold the position of Global Ambassador at Guerlain. His haute parfumerie and bespoke parfumerie have set new levels of luxury not seen in nearly a century. We spoke to him – in the Fumoir of Claridges, which functions as his second office – about where his new adventures in fragrance have taken him.

Civilian: You’ve just opened up in Moscow and in the Middle East. So many people away from those places are stuck on the image of gauche oligarchs and sheikhs. What’s been your experience?

“Ernest Beaux, who made Chanel No. 5, was the last parfumier of the Russian Imperial Court.”

Roja Dove: The opposite in fact. Maybe they boot the vulgar ones out and that’s what the world sees. Russia was very interesting because it has such a rich cultural history with the fragrance world. Ernest Beaux, who made Chanel No. 5, was the last parfumier of the Russian Imperial Court. I had a preconception of the Russian taste and I was entirely wrong. I thought they’d like fruity florals on steroids, but they are very refined. They like the most complex fragrances I have, including Enslaved, which is incredibly rich – most British people don’t like it.

And in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where you’ve also just opened stores within stores, is it all… solid gold taps?

There’s nothing wrong with gold taps, but it’s not my taste. My style is not kitsch or a parody. And my Middle Eastern clients – and this is a sweeping generalistion – are very discerning. Original Aoud and Amber Aoud are the number one selling products in Harrods, which I’m very proud of, considering all the other brands with their huge marketing budgets. They sell largely to Middle Eastern customers who know a good scent and a bad scent. Aoud is such a part of the culture over there: they burn it as bakhoor in the house, burn it in their wardrobes, stand over incense burners until it puffs out of their collar and they know they’re cooked. It’s a part of their life.

Is Aoud a fragrance you discovered over there?

Well, I was working in the Middle East for a period of three years, for two weeks every month, and during that time I learnt about Aoud from Sheikh Mohammed al-Qurashi, who is the leading authority. He makes the scent of Mecca.

Mecca has its own fragrance?

Yes, but as a non-Muslim I’m not allowed to go there, so I can’t tell you what it’s like. But he taught me about Aoud, which doesn’t actually come from that part of the world at all. It originates in Pakistan and Cambodia.

This might sound like a stupid question, but can you actually sell perfume with alcohol in it in the Middle East? We went to the opening of the Missoni Hotel in Kuwait and we were on the plane with Giorgio Locatelli and he was furious that he couldn’t bring any of his dressings or ingredients that had any alcohol in them.

“I was invited on a very private tour of the Kremlin and sat in Putin’s chair.”

I think that’s because you ingest those substances. Perfume is fine. I don’t know any country that doesn’t let you sell perfume that is alcohol based.

But there must have been some compromises in going into business in Dubai and Abu Dhabi?

Original Aoud is very dark, like molasses. Arabs don’t put scent on their skin, they put it on their clothes, and if you put Original Aoud on a white kandora you’d look like a dalmatian, so we used a fractional molecular distillation to remove the colour and create Aoud Crystal. It’s a world first.

Was there anything you found difficult to deal with on a personal level?

Yes. You pick up so many soft messages when you meet new people from the clothes they wear, and when you meet men over there they wear a white kandora and there’s no reference point. I found it very difficult. But then I remember I got into a boiling hot car one day with five members of one very sophisticated family. One of the men turned on the air conditioning, lifted his leg up on the dashboard to let the air go up his kandora, turned to me and said: “This is one of the reasons we are always cool.” I thought it was fabulous, and finally I got it. They’re actually just like big schoolchildren. Fundamentally, around the world, people are all the same.

Have you tailored the Roja Dove style for Russia or the Middle East?

Absolutely not. I am a megalomaniac control freak. The shops in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have black marble floors with white walls. When you walk in there is a huge Lalique cactus table, which Silvio Denz who owns Lalique had made for me. I am trying to put perfumery back as it was – it was always a luxury creative product. When Rene Lalique was still making jewellery, with a shop on the Place Vendome, Francois Coty moved next to him. Coty was so clever and important – people don’t realise, but he was the world’s first billionaire in 1905. What today is Henri Bendel was just the Coty perfume shop in New York. Lalique came up with the idea for Coty of a label, a bottle and a box – conceptual perfume packaging. No one had thought of it before. Since the detergent companies bought our industry, and started spewing stuff out with clever marketing, there has been little creativity and originality. My Lalique collaboration was a reference to how it used to be.

And there are other crystal elements too, aren’t there?

Yes, there are Orient Express Lalique panels. But we couldn’t use the usual naked ladies, for cultural reasons, so instead we have birds. And there’s a chandelier from Louise Kennedy, the dress designer, who works with Tipperary Crystal. It’s ultramodern, but very deco, very Manhattan loft. Then at the back we have huge violet velvet curtains – my one bit of theatre. The rest of the space is all clean lines. I went against what local people told me. They suggested those gilt Louis XIV chairs on acid, which I think are gauche and hideous. We have Le Corbusier LC2 chairs, which are low and minimal and fit with everything we have done. There is still one person over there who thinks this is chair is “not the business”. And you have to have chairs in the Middle East. It’s another cultural difference. In Moscow it isn’t that important, but in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, when a customer comes in, it’s like they are in your home.

Did you have any memorable adventures in Russia while you were working on the store at Tsum?

I was invited on a very private tour of the Kremlin and sat in Putin’s chair. When I visited I was instructed that I wasn’t allowed to step off a carpet runner, but then we came upon a pair of chairs and a table and I realised immediately it was the ones we always see on TV. I asked nicely if I could go behind, and got a silent nod from the woman. So I did. Dominic, my business partner, took a photograph. Someone at the office put it on our website but I had it taken down immediately. Not for my sake, but for the woman who was showing us around. Just in case.

And what’s the rest of the Kremlin like? Is it terribly oppressive?

The opposite. It’s very airy and light. I didn’t realise that part of it is nearly medieval. There’s a wonderful part where you walk in and see a lion with an apple in its mouth hanging from the ceiling at the entrance to the great room where the tsar used to hold council. It’s very symbolic: You see it on the way in, so you don’t speak before the Tsar, and you see it on your way out to remind you not to repeat anything you’ve heard. How wonderful! I think everyone needs a lion with an apple in its mouth.

And how lavish was it?

When you see it, you realise why there was a revolution. I loved the fireplace made out of a solid piece of malachite, and the solid gold log basket beside it. Then there’s the Tsarina’s bathtub, made from a solid piece of marble in a very pale grey, which reminded me of Dior on the Avenue Montaigne. The walls around the tub are covered in precious and fragile silk moiré. The Tsarina must have had someone holding a towel up to stop her splashes buggering up the walls. It’s immensely decadent.

 
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Roja Dove, Tsum, 2 Petrovka Street, Kitai Gorod, Moscow, Russia 125009
8 (495) 933-33-74
 
Roja Dove, Paris Gallery, Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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