Fidji, the fragrance of a wonderful island Guy Laroche is a French couturier who left his mark on the 70s with colorful creations, plunging necklines and daring cuts.
Released in 1966, Fidji met with phenomenal and immediate success. Fidji is the olfactory representation of the island of the same name, an island where all is calm, luxury and pleasure… The Fidji woman is irresistibly sensual, but above all, she is an exotic woman. Amid the expansion of more distant and exotic tourism, Guy Laroche presented Fidji, an island one could never break away from. At once floral and spicy, the spellbinding fragrance of the South Pacific islands bewitches and gives an infinite sense of well-being. A composition signed by Joséphine Catapano.
A perfumer artist at the helm of Fidji
In 1966, Guy Laroche chose to call on perfumer Joséphine Catapano. Born in 1919 in New York, Joséphine Catapano was the first woman who dared to create a perfume. A true avant-gardist, Joséphine Catapano was regarded at the time as an artist. She worked within a single company, IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances), but created perfumes for several houses, mainly Revlon, Shiseido and Estée Lauder. She contributed to the emancipation of the women of her generation and was a source of inspiration for many. Joséphine Catapano, who received several awards throughout her career, died in 2012.
Fidji, woody-spicy modernity in a fragrance
Between its peaceful coasts, its clear blue lagoon and its white sand, the Fiji Islands have made more than one person dream… It was on this idea that Joséphine Catapano decided to imagine the Fidji woman. Beautiful, exotic, almost unattainable, she exerts a power of attraction. The advertising, moreover, carried the slogan: Woman is an island, Fidji is her fragrance… Quite a program! Fidji opens with the ultra-fresh notes of lemon paired with the green facet of galbanum and the floral note of hyacinth. Hyacinth is among the loveliest of bulb flowers. Its long bell-shaped blooms give off an intoxicating scent. Hyacinth comes mainly from Asia Minor and the Balkans. Hyacinth effluvia are obtained through volatile solvent extraction, but its scent is also reproduced through synthetic molecules.
In perfumery, hyacinth gives off tones that are at once green, vegetal and floral. The heart of Fidji continues on floral notes, combining jasmine, violet, iris and rose, which are heightened by clove. Violet flower is an herbaceous plant that grows in temperate regions. It is the leaves of the violet, not its petals, that are distilled for perfumery. Nevertheless, the “violet flower” note is obtained synthetically in the laboratory. In compositions, violet flower gives off powerful tones, at once green, floral and powdery. Finally, the base of Fidji is sensual, even animalic, at once woody and ambery, combining patchouli, amber, sandalwood and musks… A magnificent fragrance, a great success for the house of Guy Laroche.