One of the things I like about music is when a talented DJ takes a song and applies their style to it and often makes me see something different in the original song. These remixes when done right will be my preferred version over the original because the DJ will lay down extra rhythms or add in other samples. In the end it is the song I know and like but with added things which make it better. When I received my sample of Hermes Bel Ami Vetiver I had to say I was imagining Hermes in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena as the olfactory DJ taking the original 1986 Hermes Bel Ami by perfumer Jean-Louis Sieuzac and producing a hipper modern dance remix. Bel Ami Vetiver definitely has some added beats to it and it feels more like a fragrance I want to wear while doing something active.
The original Bel Ami ranks right up there with the best leather fragrances ever. M. Sieuzac captured a textural leather by using cardamom, orris, civet, and vanilla to create the figurative grain to his leather accord. When I received the press release announcing Bel Ami Vetiver I was extremely curious to see what M. Ellena would do besides add the promised vetiver.
DJ JCE aka Jean-Claude Ellena
M. Ellena chooses to begin with a pinpoint of citric light as bigarade opens Bel Ami Vetiver. He has used bigarade in the past as the focal point but here it is more like a lens flare. It is noticeable within the frame but it doesn’t dominate. What does dominate is a panoply of spices; cinnamon, cumin, clove, ginger, and pimento. This is M. Ellena’s particular genius in producing a memorable accord by precisely balancing these ingredients. Together they form a decadent deeply spicy experience and you can pick apart the different voices but it is the harmony of the choir that is really the point. Now the vetiver appears as green support to the spices before the woodier aspects begin to take over. Then the leather accord comes next. I don’t know this to be true but the leather accords for Bel Ami and Bel Ami Vetiver are identical to my nose when wearing them side-by-side I wonder if M. Ellena used M. Sieuzac’s version of a leather accord. What is a very characteristic effect of M. Ellena’s is the mix of tonka and incense which also accompanies the leather.
Bel Ami Vetiver has 10-12 hour longevity and above average sillage.
Bel Ami Vetiver is another winner for Hermes in their mainstream, ie. Non-Hermessence, line. Over the past year M. Ellena has created some of the best fragrances of his very successful career. Bel Ami Vetiver is among the best of the fragrances he has created for Hermes. Like my music I think DJ JCE has taken a favorite perfume and remixed it into something more modern which has more of a beat and I can dance to it.
Disclosure: This review based on a sample provided by the Hermes Boutique in Vienna, VA.
–Mark Behnke
Editor’s Note: Bel Ami Vetiver has been available in Europe since the beginning of the year but it is just ow available at Hermes boutiques and Saks Fifth Avenue in the US.
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