Louis Vuitton's new coffee table book isn't just for reading — it's also for sniffing. The French fashion house's latest, ultra-luxe extracurricular endeavor is a 380-page volume exploring the raw materials, from Indian oud to Italian bergamot, that inspire its far-reaching fragrance collection.
Titled A Perfume Atlas, the book was created in collaboration with Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, Louis Vuitton's in-house master perfumer.
Belletrud takes readers on a trip around the world, highlighting the far-flung locales he visits to source ingredients for his olfactive creations.
Chronicled via photographs and illustrations, the perfumer's travels span the globe.
Belletrud hits a host of locales for the finest raw materials, including Sri Lanka for cinnamon; the Ivory Coast for cacao (a key note in Louis Vuitton's fragrance Nouveau Monde); Tunisia for neroli (featured in Imagination); and even Louis Vuitton's home turf of France — specifically Grasse, the world's perfume capital — for rose and jasmine (found in Rose des Vents and Apogée, respectively).
Belletrud's fine fragrance book can be purchased as a standalone on Louis Vuitton's website for $160 — but why not splurge on Louis Vuitton's limited-edition box set, which includes extractions of all 45 ingredients catalogued in the book?
Each extraction is carefully bottled, labeled with its name and origin, and nestled in a Louis Vuitton-branded coffret (a fancy box, in other words).
Of course, this smell-able addition to LV's new tome doesn't come cheap.
The extra fragrant box set is available at select Louis Vuitton physical locations for $5,000 — a pittance for LV loyalists, especially in comparison to some of the the intentionally indulgent fare recently put forth by menswear creative director Pharrell.
But for casual fragrance fans, maybe not-so-sweet a scent.
