Edmond Roudnitska, the great perfumer, had an idea noodling around at the back of his mind: a fragrance with plum as a base. He gave it a working title, 'La Prune' or 'plum' in English, and worked on it for years, refining and modifying it until the mid-fifties when he was satisfied with it. La Prune was original and bold. His wife, Thérèse, was taken by it, and Roudnitska decided that it would be her perfume alone. He kept the formula a secret so that she would be the only one ever to wear it. Fast forward to 2000, when Frédéric Malle launched his Editions de Parfums line, he says he knew it existed and asked Ms. Roudnitska if he could produce the fragrance as a tribute to her husband. She agreed, and Malle named Le Parfum de Thérèse as an homage to her.

Le Parfum de Thérèse opens with a soft note of sweet tangerine, flanked by melon and cucumber notes. Together they create a fruity aquatic accord that gives the opening a watery-airy freshness that’s unique and alluring. It ushers in a floral-fruity heart of jasmine, rose and plum. I get the jasmine first, erotic, fleshy and heady as it wafts up to my nose. The jasmine is joined by a rich, voluptuous rose in a proportion I've never smelled before. It’s stunning. The jasmine then deepens, drawing out a note of lush, sensuous plum. The base is woody from cedar and vetiver, which also contributes a gentle greenness to the scent. A soft leather note smooths it out, so the drydown is carnal yet elegant. On me, Le Parfum de Thérèse is like a languorous cat, sitting on my wrist and purring.

Malle writes, "When smelling it today, one believes that Le Parfum de Thérèse is a vintage perfume encapsulating the delicate and ladylike Parisian chic of the 1950s, a sharp contrast to the futuristic impression it generated back then." After all this time, Le Parfum de Thérèse lives on like any great love story.

Notes: tangerine, melon, cucumber, plum, rose, jasmine, cedar, vetiver and leather.