East meets West in the Guerlain Mitsouko By Arita Porcelain Lab fragrance

Pretty in porcelain

The mutual appreciation society that exists between Japan and Europe, in particular France, has resulted in some of the most refined examples of luxury in the past century. In 1919, for example, perfumer Jacques Guerlain was enticed enough by the scent of the Far East to compose a fragrance that match that passion and fantasy wafting in the Orient. Ha named it Mitsouko – Japanese for ‘mystery’ – and this year, that timeless fragrance stretches further back in time to celebrate the 400th anniversary of an intangible Japanese treasure, aritayaki porcelain ware – in the Guerlain Mitsouko By Arita Porcelain Lab Limited Edition.

The collaboration takes the distinctive Mitsouko flacon and its inverted heart stopper, then fashions it out of porcelain instead of glass. Using porcelain techniques developed in the town of Arita in northwestern Kyushu – where colourful aritayaki pottery was developed four hundred years ago in 1616 – the patient artisans of Arita Porcelain Lab crafted the flacons at the company’s historic Yazaemon kiln. The motifs are distinctively Nipponese and true to aritayaki traditions: floral and geometric patterns arranged in a sunburst shape that references the outline of the Japanese Rising Sun Flag. Impeccably handpainted, each bottle of Guerlain Mitsouko By Arita Porcelain Lab Limited Edition is priced at €380 (RM1,795).

Guerlain