Fashion scents

Joe Garces kept Piguet's original bottle designs when he re-launched the brand, using black glass for the containers.

Robert Piguet's CEO Joe Garces tells Rebecca Lo about a new fragrance collection created with Asian women in mind.

Le French May is an annual event Asia's Francophiles eagerly anticipate. This May, a highlight included the A Touch of Madness film series. The house of Robert Piguet was its partner alongside the sponsor China Vision Media Group. It kicked off with an exclusive party at The China Club. Some 300 well-heeled guests, such as French consul general Arnaud Barthelemy, his wife Elisa Ghigo, and designers Alan Chan and Joyce Wang, were teased with the intoxicating Pacific Collection. The scents created specifically for Asian women by Robert Piguet's master perfumer Aurelien Guichard swirled about the room.

It has always been that way with Robert Piguet. Fracas, created for Piguet in 1948 by legendary perfumer Germaine Cellier, is considered a classic.

With its mesmerizing combination of Indian tuberose, Tunisian orange blossom, French jasmine and Italian iris root butter, Fracas is the favorite of fashion icons from Marlene Dietrich to Madonna - and even designer Marc Jacobs.

Indeed, some claim that Madonna's own perfume Truth or Dare bears more than a passing similarity to Fracas.

Piguet was initially a master Parisian couture designer, who is said to have understood that a woman is truly attired after dabbing on a beloved fragrance.

"The Piguet brand is a part of true French history," says Joe Garces, Robert Piguet Parfums' CEO since 1992.

Indian tuberose, Tunisian orange blossom and French jasmine are infused into the fragrance Fracas.