A Look at Louis Vuitton's New Fragrance with Multimedia Artist Alex Israel
The designer tells us all about his latest collaboration with Louis Vuitton
For Los Angeles native Alex Israel, inspiration is all around him. Describing his typical morning in the sunny Californian city as a cool and quiet affair, the multimedia artist and designer finds beauty in its architecture, natural terrain, plant life and light on his many walks and hikes. In fact, it is Israel’s active lifestyle and pursuit of wellness that motivated the design of this project with Louis Vuitton: Pacific Chill, a blackcurrant, carrot seed and aromatic herb-infused fragrance that transports wearers to the coasts of LA with every spritz.
Commissioned by the house to design Pacific Chill’s bottle and trunk-inspired packaging, Israel chose the colours green and blue to best represent California’s land and seascapes. “The green and blue gradient is resourced directly from the landscape, which I associate most intuitively with the scent,” says Israel. “It’s the green of the hillsides and the blue of the sea and sky along the Southern California Coast in the morning. It’s where I love to hike.”
Pacific Chill is the fifth scent to join Louis Vuitton’s Californian-inspired cologne collection, created by Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. “It’s the most magical aspects of life in LA, bottled,” adds Israel. Much like its predecessors, the packaging of the fragrance draws association to the collection, or as the artist calls it, “a world of natural beauty, wellness, and a unique sense of optimism characteristic of Southern Californian life.”
Painted on the trunk is Israel’s take on the views from his favourite hike, which involves Paseo Miramar in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles. “The colours are natural to the landscape; the blue sky as in the morning after the marine layer burns off and the greens of the plants growing along the hillside,” he explains. “The artwork is specific to a place and time and is meant to evoke a kind of freshness, optimism and a sense of peace.”
To Israel, the invigorating and calming scent of Pacific Chill helped build his design vision. “It connected to a health and wellness sensibility,” he says. “The sensation of endorphins kicking in and creating a space of joy and focus after a long ascent to the top of a hike.”
As a scent, Pacific Chill indeed brings to mind health and wellness, which is Belletrud’s intention to begin with. The idea came to the perfumer while on a smoothie run with Israel, when both ordered detoxifying smoothies. “I like that it’s so activating,” says Israel. “It’s not a passive scent, but one that almost energises me, as if I’ve finished a hike above the beach or had a fresh cold-pressed juice.”
“I’m always surprised by how much Jacques is able to capture a real sense of place,” he says. “In this case, the scent transports me to the cliff I’ve chosen to interpret in the painting.” For Israel, that’s a place above the sea where he says he feels his healthiest and most in touch with his body.
