Angel

Legendary because today, even after its twentieth anniversary, it is still among the best-selling perfumes. Legendary because its fragrance was the first to dare venture into gourmand notes of cotton candy, caramel and even chocolate. Legendary because its star-shaped bottle has become the symbol of the house, the spokesperson for Mugler fragrances. Angel is a myth that is still very much alive, built around a wild and personal project by Mugler himself and launched through a communication strategy that managed to create, in 1992—at the dawn of the internet, let us remember—a genuine social network around the perfume.

The creation of Angel by Thierry Mugler, Vera Strubi and Olivier Cresp

In 1992, Thierry Mugler was a star of haute couture, and his shows, with their staging as wild as it was avant-garde, attracted every celebrity into the branches… of his star. Yet one string was still missing from Thierry Mugler's shooting star: his own perfume house. For his first perfume, Mugler partnered with Clarins while already having a very precise idea of what he wanted: he told Vera Strubi about blue, about a scent of chocolate and caramel, about a classic juice that a little boy might give his mother, as Vera Strubi, in charge of the creation of the project, recalls.

Vera Strubi had to build the entire project around this idea, which was completely outside the well-trodden paths of the time, when perfumes were being oriented toward transparent, very pared-down fragrances. From the bottle to the juice, everything was going to be totally different, because a Mugler perfume had to be different. Even so, the noses had to be convinced, since many refused to create a perfume with “funfair” notes that they considered heavy and sickly. It was Olivier Cresp who agreed to create the lovely gourmand oriental, while Vera Strubi developed the bottle, that pretty star.

Thierry Mugler wanted a lineup of stars and a grandiose, thoroughly futuristic event, in keeping with his fashion shows. The spending already put into the packaging did not allow for such an event, and the far more innovative and effective idea at the time was to organize an Angel tour that would stop in major French cities to introduce the perfume while building with customers a Circle of exchange and sharing around the fragrance. This was a social network well ahead of its time, which propelled Angel to spectacular success, despite the small number of perfumeries that agreed to carry it at first (only 200 stores in France, and none in Paris). For Vera Strubi, looking back on Angel's success story during a conference at the Société Française des Parfumeurs, it was this contractual, relational and emotional dimension with the consumer that set Angel apart from its competitors and secured its lasting success.

Angel: the gourmand, sugary perfume that revolutionized fine perfumery

Angel is not merely a wonderful idea and a concept on glossy paper; it represents a change of direction, a desire for modernity that thoroughly upended the previously rather traditional codes of perfumery, much as Mugler also upended the spheres of haute couture.

Moreover, the Angel project was born directly from Thierry Mugler's own hands; he was not merely a commissioning party. Thus the bottle was inspired by a star-shaped ring that Vera Strubi noticed on his finger during their first meetings with the designer. She later learned that the star was Mugler's favorite shape, one he wore on his clothes but also had tattooed on his skin. It was Mugler who designed the bottle, and despite the exorbitant costs announced for its manufacture, he managed to get his star for Angel.

As for the fragrance created by Olivier Cresp, it is airy, at least as celestial as its name. The top notes of bergamot and mandarin lift us toward light, transparent skies. Then the very fruity heart notes of peach, apricot and passion fruit bring us back to the orchards, better to carry us off in passionate scents toward beautiful, sweet, exotic journeys. As for the base notes, they create the event by bringing in raw materials until then unused in perfumery, such as caramel, cocoa and honey, skillfully blended with powerful notes of patchouli, vanilla and heliotrope. Gourmand and fruity, Angel offers a creative, deliciously indulgent olfactory whole that will plunge women of every age into the gourmand delights of an exceptional fragrance.

Through its concept, its bottle and its juice alike, Angel offers a perfume that is completely out of step and in total break with the usual codes of classic perfumery. Through his personal involvement, Mugler created a perfume and an image in perfumery that resembles, in every respect, who he is and what his haute couture house wishes to convey. This lovely celestial UFO wasted no time in becoming the leader of the new family of perfumes over which it reigns supreme: fruity gourmands.