The Timeless Souvenir
In conversation with master perfumer Jacques Chabert
By Matthew Neale
"A perfumer's role is to put a scent to their imagination"
There are few things we carry home from our travels that survive the passing of time. Photographs fade into camera rolls, souvenirs gather dust on shelves, and even the sharpest memories begin to soften. Scent is different. Years later, the faintest trace of jasmine, cedar or sea salt can return us to a place with startling clarity.
For Jacques Chabert, one of the world's most respected master perfumers, that relationship between scent and memory isn't simply an observation. It's the foundation of his life's work.
"A perfumer's role is to put a scent to their imagination," he says. It sounds deceptively simple. In reality, it is an act of translation. A perfumer isn't recreating a landscape or a building, but attempting to capture the feeling they leave behind.
That challenge sits at the heart of Jacques' collaboration with Aman.
There are few things we carry home from our travels that survive the passing of time. Photographs fade into camera rolls, souvenirs gather dust on shelves, and even the sharpest memories begin to soften. Scent is different. Years later, the faintest trace of jasmine, cedar or sea salt can return us to a place with startling clarity.
For Jacques Chabert, one of the world's most respected master perfumers, that relationship between scent and memory isn't simply an observation. It's the foundation of his life's work.
"A perfumer's role is to put a scent to their imagination," he says. It sounds deceptively simple. In reality, it is an act of translation. A perfumer isn't recreating a landscape or a building, but attempting to capture the feeling they leave behind.
That challenge sits at the heart of Jacques' collaboration with Aman.
Across the Aman Fine Fragrance collection, each scent begins not with ingredients, but with experience. The stillness of an early morning, the warmth of timber beneath your hands, the quiet confidence of architecture that never demands attention. Jacques' task was to distil those moments into something entirely invisible.
The result is perhaps the closest thing to taking a piece of an Aman journey home. Yet Jacques is quick to dismantle the romantic idea that perfume is created through flashes of inspiration alone.
"Creating something is easy," he says with a smile. "You blend two or three ingredients together and
create an olfactive clash. But it has to be appealing." That distinction, between novelty and harmony, defines his work.
Like any creative discipline, perfume rarely arrives fully formed. During our conversation, Jacques describes the familiar cycle of conviction and doubt that accompanies every project. A fragrance can feel complete on a Friday, only to be questioned entirely by Monday.
It is a feeling that extends well beyond perfumery. Whether writing, painting or composing music, creative certainty is often fleeting.
"Once it's done," Jacques says, "you take some distance." Only later, seeing other people experience the work, do you begin to understand what you've really made. That distance feels particularly important when creating for Aman.
When asked whether one ingredient quietly connects the collection, Jacques doesn't hesitate. "Sandalwood." Not because it dominates, but because of what it represents. "It's beautiful. It's long-lasting... and nobody can say it doesn't smell good."
Discover the Fragrance
Like any creative discipline, perfume rarely arrives fully formed. During our conversation, Jacques describes the familiar cycle of conviction and doubt that accompanies every project. A fragrance can feel complete on a Friday, only to be questioned entirely by Monday.
It is a feeling that extends well beyond perfumery. Whether writing, painting or composing music, creative certainty is often fleeting.
"Once it's done," Jacques says, "you take some distance." Only later, seeing other people experience the work, do you begin to understand what you've really made. That distance feels particularly important when creating for Aman.
When asked whether one ingredient quietly connects the collection, Jacques doesn't hesitate. "Sandalwood." Not because it dominates, but because of what it represents. "It's beautiful. It's long-lasting... and nobody can say it doesn't smell good."
Discover the Fragrance
Like Aman itself, sandalwood possesses a quiet confidence. It doesn't overwhelm a composition. Instead, it anchors it, allowing everything around it to breathe.
Throughout our conversation, it becomes clear that Jacques speaks less about fragrance than he does about memory. When asked whether there is a scent that immediately transports him somewhere else, he doesn't mention a singular perfume or an exotic flower. Instead, he remembers his mother.
"When I was four or five years old, my mother would go out to run some errands. When she came back, she would kiss me... the smell of her lipstick, that was really joyful for me."
The lipstick no longer exists. The fragrance has almost certainly disappeared from production decades ago. The memory remains intact.
Like Aman itself, sandalwood possesses a quiet confidence. It doesn't overwhelm a composition. Instead, it anchors it, allowing everything around it to breathe.
Throughout our conversation, it becomes clear that Jacques speaks less about fragrance than he does about memory. When asked whether there is a scent that immediately transports him somewhere else, he doesn't mention a singular perfume or an exotic flower. Instead, he remembers his mother.
"When I was four or five years old, my mother would go out to run some errands. When she came back, she would kiss me... the smell of her lipstick, that was really joyful for me."
The lipstick no longer exists. The fragrance has almost certainly disappeared from production decades ago. The memory remains intact.
For all its emotional power, perfumery remains, at its core, a craft. There is often a belief that perfumers are born with extraordinary noses, capable of detecting what others cannot. Jacques disagrees.
"You can learn, absolutely," he says. "It's not a matter of having a better nose than other people." Instead, he compares the profession to an actor learning lines. "A perfumer learns his raw materials." The difference lies elsewhere.
"If you do creative work, you have to develop a passion for it." It is difficult not to hear echoes of Aman itself in that philosophy. Excellence isn't accidental. It is built patiently, refined over time, and sustained by genuine care for the craft.
Towards the end of our conversation, I ask whether fragrance can make us braver. Jacques considers the question for a moment. "More confidence is the step just before bravery." Perhaps that is what the best fragrances offer. Not a disguise, nor an escape, but a quiet confidence. An invisible companion that changes not who we are, but how we carry ourselves through the world. And perhaps that is also why scent remains the most enduring souvenir of all.
Long after a journey has ended, fragrance has the remarkable ability to transport us back to a specific place and time, or to bring us home again..
Discover the Aman Fine Fragrance collection, inspired by the Aman Sanctuaries.
For all its emotional power, perfumery remains, at its core, a craft. There is often a belief that perfumers are born with extraordinary noses, capable of detecting what others cannot. Jacques disagrees.
"You can learn, absolutely," he says. "It's not a matter of having a better nose than other people." Instead, he compares the profession to an actor learning lines. "A perfumer learns his raw materials." The difference lies elsewhere.
"If you do creative work, you have to develop a passion for it." It is difficult not to hear echoes of Aman itself in that philosophy. Excellence isn't accidental. It is built patiently, refined over time, and sustained by genuine care for the craft.
Towards the end of our conversation, I ask whether fragrance can make us braver. Jacques considers the question for a moment. "More confidence is the step just before bravery." Perhaps that is what the best fragrances offer. Not a disguise, nor an escape, but a quiet confidence. An invisible companion that changes not who we are, but how we carry ourselves through the world. And perhaps that is also why scent remains the most enduring souvenir of all.
Long after a journey has ended, fragrance has the remarkable ability to transport us back to a specific place and time, or to bring us home again..
Discover the Aman Fine Fragrance collection, inspired by the Aman Sanctuaries.