“A strange journey. It begins with an image from a 16th-century Spanish herbarium: a slender plant with pale white flowers. Bone flowers. We found the same blooms in the chinampas, the Aztecs’ floating gardens. And also in India, Martinique, Morocco and the night gardens of the Victorian age. Tuberose, the forbidden perfume, has continued to bewitch our sense of smell ever since”.
A tenebrous charm has accompanied Tuberose, the forbidden perfume, throughout its history. Omix- ochitl - the skeleton-white bloom that only opens as darkness falls - was considered a deadly flower in ancient Mexico. It became known in the 16th century, and its career in the world of perfume still has sinister connotations. The essence of the flowers picked in bud can likened to a clean, creamy accord. But its true vocation is dark, sensuous, carnal.