Guerlain limited-editions dress the seasons in haute couture

LVMH-owned beauty brand Guerlain is telling the fragrant stories of the seasons in an artistic bottle collaboration.

Described as four poems in a bottle to represent winter, spring, summer and fall, Guerlain worked with Paris-based Brazilian artist and couture designer Janaïna Milheiro to create bottle art for each seasonal scent. For a perfumer, a fragrance’s true essence lies within the juice, which presents brands with an opportunity to explore design options that captivate ahead of a consumer experiencing the scent.

Scented seasons
Guerlain’s The Four Seasons eau de parfum range includes a bottle and defining scent for each season. The scents in the series were created by master perfumer Thierry Wasser.

L’Hiver, or winter in French, is described as a green and woody musk scent. Its bottle is adorned with pearl and white feathers to resemble snow and icy weather.

Haute couture decoration for Guelain's L'Hiver

For spring, Guerlain created Le Printemps, with a musky green floral composition, wrapped with feathers of pinks, green and teal to represent flower blossoms.

L’Été, Guerlain’s summer scent, has peach notes for a “solar floral” fragrance. The decanter designed by Ms. Millherio includes gold feathers that compare to a sunburst coming from the bottle’s base.

Gerlain’s final scent in the limited-edition bottle series is L’Automne. The woody scent is housed in a bottle decorated with dark-colored feathers that wrap around its neck and spill over onto the sides as if they were falling leaves.

Guerlain's Four Seasons fragrance collection

The four bottles chosen for the collection were produced by Baccarat crystal using Guerlain’s vintage quadrilobe bottle design. Sold separately, the limited-edition, signed and numbered bottles retail for 16,000 euros, or $17,850 at current exchange rates.

Guerlain has worked with other artists and creative talents on limited-edition bottles

For example, the Parisian perfumer kicked off 2016 with “intensity” and an explosion of colors.

In a social post, Guerlain shared a 13-second video of artist JonOne working on a canvas in his studio, speaking of the importance of color and his pride in working with “the Bee.” The effort doubled as Guerlain’s well wishes for 2016 and an announcement for its collaboration with JonOne.

For the collaboration, Guerlain selected three of its cornerstone fragrances: Shalimar, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015, La Petite Robe Noire and Rose Barbare. Rather than the corresponding bottle that goes with each of the three fragrances, Guerlain selected the classic crystal decanter with engraved bees, a design dating back to 1853 (see story).