Tsar, the fragrant heritage of Van Cleef Arpels Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef opened their jewelry boutique in 1906 on Place Vendôme. Success did not take long to arrive and their creations were recognized worldwide. They opened another boutique in New York in 1939.
While the jewelry house Van Cleef and Arpels has been legendary since the early 20th century, it waited until the end of the 70s to offer its very first perfume for women: First. Designed like a jewel, the fragrance quickly became a great success, which prompted the house to release its very first masculine perfume two years later, the precious and elegant Pour Homme. It would nevertheless take almost 10 years to finally discover the house's second masculine perfume, Tsar.
Tsar or the fragrant tribute to the “brilliance” of the Russian nobility that made Van Cleef and Arpels famous
The house Van Cleef and Arpels, although very renowned for decades for the beauty and craftsmanship of its luxury jewelry, preferred to wait until the 70s to launch into perfumery. And the least one can say is that the house's very first perfume, aptly named First, was a great success even decades later.
With First and then with Pour Homme, the jewelry house earned its full legitimacy in perfumery without changing anything about its spirit. Indeed, every Van Cleef and Arpels perfume seeks to depict a jewel or a type of clientele for whom a jewel was intended. Thus Pour Homme was composed in a way that paid tribute to the dandies of the 20s who flocked to Van Cleef and Arpels to obtain sophisticated yet understated jewelry.
We will hardly be surprised to see that Tsar, the house's second masculine perfume, is a tribute to the famous and prestigious Russian clientele who pushed open the doors of the great jewelry house during their exile at the fall of royalty. Influential men who brought to Paris in their precious baggage the immense richness of Slavic culture.
Tsar therefore seeks to symbolize these fallen men of power who nevertheless remain just as “brilliant,” just as influential and sophisticated.
The power of a legendary masculine perfume: Tsar by Van Cleef et Arpels
Philippe Bousseton is not a perfumer who seeks to follow trends; on the contrary, for him the ideal perfume would be to have a timeless perfume, a perfume passed down from generation to generation. This is precisely what he achieved with Tsar, which entered perfumeries in 1989 never to leave them.
Tsar opens with a powerful and skillfully orchestrated blend of multiple aromatic notes of coriander, juniper, mugwort, thyme, tarragon and lavender. This tonic aromatic blend cannot help but recall the power of perfumes from the early 20th century. But these retro scents are soon disrupted by the lively, green notes of geranium and a green note that offer a soft and airy heart. Finally, the woody notes of the depths, composed around vetiver, cedar and oakmoss, become even more powerful thanks to the coumarin that closes Tsar in a great surge of wild and virile forces.
Created in 1989, Tsar carries a strong and immediately recognizable identity. Van Cleef and Arpels on Tsar.