Photo: Courtesy of Atelier de Geste.
Steve Martin once said disparagingly, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” We wonder what he’d say if he knew there was a perfume line “scenting” about dance? If he took a whiff of Atelier de Geste’s three new perfumes, he might change his mind.
Beau Rhee, head of New York-based art and design studio Atelier de Geste (The Gesture Studio), creates movement-based performances, sculptures, clothing, and now fragrances.
In Atelier de Geste’s 2012 choreographed performance The Ball of Living Matter, each of the three acts illustrated themes such as self-reflection, work, and love, and each act had its own perfume. “The scents,” says Rhee, “were originally designed to amplify the movements, feelings, and colors of each act to the audience.” Rhee was hands-on in the creation of each, working with a perfumer at one of the oldest perfumeries in Grasse, France.
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Blood Sweat Tears combines notes of tea, tobacco, jasmine, and fruit to create a warm, seductive, and woodsy scent. Green and outdoorsy, The Good Earth bursts forth with a joyously uplifting fragrance, featuring moss oils, galbanum, and opoponax. Wild Is the Wind is boozy and leathery, with notes of musk, woods, and rosebuds.
We asked Rhee how she sees the connection between dance/movement and perfume. “Scent and movement are visceral, temporal, sensual art forms that use our bodily experience as their canvas,” says Rhee, and as these perfume notes swirl and dance on our skin, we can see (and smell) what she means.
Atelier de Geste Fragrances, $130, available at The Cools.