[Photo provided to China Daily]

The skin is another type of enclosure. What do you think of fragrances that leave an intoxicating wake?

The wake always comes from a person one traces back, a bit like a boat's wake. It's a scar, an invisible wound. If so, you can consider fragrance as a plaster, the skin of the air.

Hong Kong means "fragrant harbour". What kind of scent does this place inspire in you? Are there Chinese influences in your fragrance Mandarine Mandarin?

Anytime I travelled and loved a country's atmosphere, I found a reference point. In my case, they're all about femininity, and thus rely on images. Hong Kong was an immediate shock. I love these small lanes with their narrow stalls, this feverishness, this tension－whose scents are reminiscent of poison and seduction.

Sometimes I crossed paths with women dressed in pyjamas, walking on the road with picks in their hands and carrying a burden on their dainty shoulders. One could have thought these light women were made of fish bones－a line articulated by legs. Their faces were absent. They were hidden behind the large, drooping straw hats they wore. Of course, it was a practical outfit, but to me it was the perfect embodiment of what could be described as an ideal by the great fashion designer I sometimes hoped to become. Stamina, fragility and beauty. I met Hong Kong through this vision of woman, through this encounter with myself.

Mandarine Mandarin isn't a fragrance of China, but a fragrance for the one who likes to play with China and the mandarin peel, the one who is fascinated by Mandarin－a hermetic and unknown language to him.

In contrast, Nuit de Cellophane is a fragrance in which Chinese osmanthus－jasmine tinged with mandarin－is very present. The ambition to gather a smell and a country in a single scent was inspired by a vision of femininity, and thus of myself, since it was within me. Femininity is never external to me; it's part of my roots, it shaped me.

You once said, "We only create what we need." What do you need today that you could create tomorrow?

Creation can't be convened…