Kilian Hennessy's journey as a perfumer started in the most unlikely of places - the basement of his family's dusty cellars in the Cognac region of France. It was here that the heir to the Hennessy fortune decided to take a different path into the world of scents.
'I knew I would never join the family business,' says Hennessy. 'But when I was in business school, I wrote a thesis on semantics of scents, and I knew instantly it would be my craft, my way of freedom. It was close enough to cognac, but far enough from the family universe. The first day I started smelling, it clicked.'
After graduating from university, Hennessy made it his mission to discover the world of perfumery. Through a friend, he was introduced to renowned nose Jacques Cavallier, who had created scents for the likes of Issey Miyake and Jean Paul Gaultier. He took the young and eager Hennessy under his wing and taught him all he needed to know.
'He expanded my palette from maybe 500 essential oils to 2,000,' says Hennessy. 'It was interesting because I could also use my experience with cognacs, since taste and smell are closely connected. That being said, the combinations you can create with smells are endless, while there are only four basic tastes.'
Over the next few years, Hennessy continued his education with other noses, absorbing as much as he could about perfume culture and its complicated chemistry. His research led him to work with prestigious houses such as Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen and multinationals such as L'Oreal. While each of them taught him different aspects of the business, it did not fulfil the emotional connection he was looking for.
'I was not happy with the final product. Perfume was no longer a luxury product, it was all about making the highest profit margin,' he says. 'I didn't go into the industry to make a perfume that smelt bad just to make money.'