La Dompteuse Encagée, the latest release from Serge Lutens Serge Lutens is a prolific and highly inventive creator, who designs several new perfumes per year. Yet he is far from taking the easy path and constantly imagines fragrances that are always highly innovative and atypical. Far from following trends, he lets himself be guided by his instinct, even if it means unsettling more than one person.
In 2021, the creator Serge Lutens expanded his famous Collection Noire and incorporated into it a new fragrance named La Dompteuse Encagée. Quite different from the other essences designed by Serge Lutens, this fragrance is meant to be gourmand, sweet and floral. It thus proves far more optimistic than it seems. To achieve this, it relies on frangipani flower and almond. As for the bottle, however, no major surprise. It still fits within the emblematic glass case of the Collection Noire, common to the whole range of Serge Lutens fragrances. Let us nevertheless see what makes up its visual
La Dompteuse Encagée, a play of light and shadow
La Dompteuse Encagée is described as follows, attributed to Serge Lutens: of this cold girl, made up in white, I must take full responsibility. Yet, of this dreaded snow, foreseen as it is, I sense the avalanche coming. What the whiteness of the flower has seen does not allow one to foretell freshness, the scent of frangipani makes up for it there. Subtly amended, to be savored directly on the skin. In other words, Serge Lutens contrasts in this fragrance cold, dreaded and shadowy elements with other, more optimistic, white and delightful things. Both olfactorily and visually, this fragrance relies on a fascinating play of light and shadow. And this is precisely what is found in its visual. It remains common to the whole Collection Noire. However, it fits perfectly with the philosophy of this essence. On one hand, it is nothing but transparency and light. On the other, it proves much darker. More specifically, it consists of a translucent glass rectangle, whose walls let light pass through. Yet an imposing black label is affixed to its front face, while perfectly matching its small bead-shaped black cap. The whole is also encircled by an amber-colored juice, warmer in tone, embodying the more sun-kissed and syrupy side of La Dompteuse Encagée.
The very clean-lined bottle of Serge Lutens's Collection Noire
Like all the fragrances of Serge Lutens's Collection Noire, La Dompteuse Encagée comes in a rectangular, transparent case, rising skyward with force and power. If Serge Lutens chose a rectangular container, it is above all because anything cubic stands in opposition to the natural world. In nature, nothing is ever square. Only the hand of man is capable of crafting elements of such perfection. To echo the name of his collection, he chose to bring in a few black elements, such as a spherical cap and an imposing label. The whole is contained in a black cardboard box, on which the creator's name as well as that of the fragrance are inscribed in white lettering. Like all the fragrances of Serge Lutens's Collection Noire, La Dompteuse Encagée comes in only one single size, in a 100 ml spray bottle.