More than a collaboration, a work shared by two is what this creation is all about. Taking high perfumery to a new level with an olfactory marvel that came as the fruit of an encounter orchestrated by Maison Louis Vuitton between Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud and the legendary architect Frank Gehry, another work of high art has seen the light. Named Myriad, Les Extraits collection now welcomes a new creation that pays tribute to a monumental ingredient in perfumery.

Perfectly embodying the obsession of breaking free of convention to create pure emotion shared by the two creatives, this sixth addition to Les Extraits collection reinterprets Oud, the precious wood known as “black gold”. With its complex smell and rich history across cultures and eras, this element offers a vast territory of inspiration and allows the creation of infinite variations. Thinking of a way to infuse this dense and powerful material with the lightness that is Les Extraits’ signature, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud revealed all the facets of its scent through floral notes based on a made-to-measure rose that combines the freshness of Bulgarian rose essence with the roundness of May rose absolute from Grasse. The saffron comes to amplify the naturally leathery, spicy effects of oud, while cocoa extract offers a sensual and raw ambivalence. And while a dense combination of ambrette and white musk lifts the fragrance and lets it linger on the skin, a note of moss adds the final touch to the fragrance, contributing to its velvetiness.

Because a fragrance is seen before it is smelled, Myriad expresses itself through its color, ranging between tawny red and amber pink. And to capture its movement through the bottle holding it, Frank Gehry imagined a dynamic, fluid form while taking the original bottle by designer Marc Newson for Parfums Louis Vuitton as a starting point, and stretched its lines into curves. From there, he designed an imaginary flower as a hood – turning the bottle into a work of art in its own right.