Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Daniela Andrier studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris before deciding on a career in perfume. In 1988, she started as a trainee at Chanel and the following year she began attending the Roure Perfumery School (now Givaudan). Nowadays she's still working there and is married to Gilles Andrier, Givaudan's CEO. Her fragrances are poetic, vivid and above all, refined. Her perfumes reflect her desire to share her vision of beauty with others.

What is your motto?

“Far from any cliché”

What is your most beautiful olfactory memory?

My most beautiful olfactory memory is of the screen that my father would roll out of a long suitcase and on which we watched super 8 films. It smelled like Atlas cedar wood essence.

Who has been your mentor and/or the perfumer who’s influenced you the most?

First, there was Jacques Polge with whom I was lucky enough to do an internship at Chanel. Secondly, there was Edouard Fléchier who I had the chance to assist after having finished the Roure School [of Perfumery] in Grasse.

Do you have any favourite raw materials?

I like all types of natural materials, without exception. They all have something marvellous to them, but they obey certain cycles. I have a tendency to work a lot with a material only to forget about it and to pick it up again later. It’s a continuous game since we’re constantly changing and we don’t perceive things in the same way over time. I like this variation in the perception of raw materials because they never risk boring me.

Do you have an olfactive signature?

Yes, I think I have a signature. It lies in the consistency of doing what I love, thus what I love in perfumes and also what I steer clear off. I like weaving memories through perfume, the past, the present and the future. I like it when a perfume provokes a sort of olfactive déjà vu, something that’s far from what the thousands of perfumes that all resemble each other are capable of evoking. The déjà vu should come from our own olfactive emotions.

What was the initial brief given by Martin Margiela for the creation of Untitled? What did it evoke for him?

A “green flash” that submerges you in green notes. I was on maternity leave at the time and Martin Margiela had already met with several perfumers over the span of a year or so. For me, it was the first perfume that I created after coming back from my maternity leave. I felt a very special joy when I wrote the first version and I knew that it was going to be good. Martin Margiela immediately loved it, which was a tremendous pleasure for me.

If there were to be a follow up on Untitled or a new perfume brief by Martin Margiela, what would it be?

You’d need a magic lamp to know what that would be...