Concept — Fragrance
Frédéric Malle
Sans modèle
The concept
Sans modèle
A perfume called Portrait of a Lady, and not a single face in the campaign.
Frédéric Malle publishes perfumers the way a house publishes writers. The name on the label is Dominique Ropion, not a celebrity. Every other fragrance campaign resolves in a face — here the author is already named, and a face would only stand in front of him.
So the room becomes the sitter. One red, wall to floor, no horizon to give away the scale. A single hard shaft crossing the space at the hour it would really cross it. The bottle is placed, never styled. In most of the frames, the longest element is its shadow.
One typographic plate carries the credit, set like a book cover rather than an advertisement — Éditions de Parfums, the perfumer's name above the perfume's. Sans modèle: a portrait built entirely from light, colour and an empty room.
The campaign — 01/05
A portrait with no one in it.
9:16
A red with no horizon to give away the scale. One shaft crosses the recess at the hour it would really cross it.
4:5
Cap off, laid down, not arranged. The longest element in the frame is its own shadow.
3:4
Eight seconds, one movement of light. Nothing enters the frame that was not already in the room.
1:1
Macro on the base. Juice, glass and red — the only three materials the campaign is made of.
4:5
The credit set like a book cover rather than an advertisement. Éditions de Parfums — the perfumer's name above the perfume's.
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