i have a bottle of v.o… 1/3 left maybe… i bought it at a small perfume shop in boston many years ago and i always loved the mysterious scent, but knew nothing about the brand. i bought it because it was reassuringly expensive (for the time) but also because it was truely different, like nothing else i had smelled. i had no idea who jean marc sinan was but i finally looked him up…

the story of this interesting character is a complicated and twisted one… but with thanks to sergey borisov we can now take a glimpse into sinan’s life. “born in 1951 in sham country (greater syria, or levante), he was a homeless london hippie from 1965 to 1967, then spent five years  practicing meditation in the southern algerian desert. he was then a mine-worker for 2 years…

 

mine-worker, florist, intern at christian dior, to youngest couturier in paris

 

and a florist for three years, then landed as an intern at christian dior for marc bohan for a year. leaving the house of dior in 1980, he opens his own couture maison in the 15th arrondissement of paris, where he was “rediscovered” by regular dior clients – and jean-marc becomes the youngest couturier in paris.

from 1981 to 1990 jean-marc sinan develops a holding company of his own name – among 70 companies that were created, including a perfume brand, which launched his first fragrances in 1984.

 

parfums jean-marc sinan paris

 

live and rejoice, you just made your way from desert dust to prosperous bourgeois! but… in 1990, he buys up all the stock of his inventory he could reach around the world – and mercilessly razed everything to the ground with a bulldozer in chartres.

now not a couturier or perfumer, he begins the early ’90s anew as an artist, sculptor and painter. travelling to new york, california, indian kerala, paris, italy, bahrain – he practices as an architect, sculptor, painter, furniture maker. he studied religion intensively and discovers his god, he then burns nearly a thousand of his paintings in india, started a family and starts painted a new.

 

limited edition rare perfumes in hand blown glass

 

he created his own contemporary art center in paris, with a holistic food restaurant. his paintings are devoted to the relationship between the human and the divine, and three fragrances in handmade bottles (lettre a une femme, par femme du coeur, paradise no people – the latter bottle in the form of a green cloud on wings carrying water to people).

 

from this story, it becomes clear why the old jean-marc sinan fragrances are so rare and iconic. they hadn’t been produced for long, only 6 years (1984-1990), and only the few bottles that weren’t destroyed in chartres have survived. his first women’s fragrance, sinan, is best known for its crescent-stemmed, green and spicy rose chypre with a thick animal base – but today i’d like to talk about his first men’s fragrance, v.o. jean-marc sinan.

 

v.o. version originale jean-marc sinan

fashion photograph for jean marc sinan paris 1987 and below v.o. jean-marc sinan: the brand’s first men’s fragrance

rare v.o bottle design : top notes: lavender, geranium, neroli, lemon and tangerine
middle notes: pepper, rose, jasmine, carnation, ylang-ylang and lily of the valley
base notes: musk, woody notes, cedar, sandalwood and tonka bean.

v.o. stands for version originale, as if the artist had been bored with numerous copies beforehand, even before the release of his original (?). and it is as rich and full-bodied a fragrance as a woman’s – it is created like a couple; its floral heart is similar to a woman’s fragrance (rose, geranium, jasmine, ylang ylang), but the whole composition is deployed in a dark, fougere direction. v.o. is one of those dark intense men’s fragrances that lived in black bottles in the 1980s.

a very roughly spicy scent (pepper, cumin, carnation), with a dab of dark greens (pine needles, wormwood) over powerful citrus and lavender in the beginning. with a sharp and sweet intoxicating accord in which geranium dominates over honeyed rose and sweet fir balsam supporting the coniferous pine needles – it smells like soap infused with crushed spices and pine needles. the dense, dark base of v.o. version originale, besides fir balsam, is a fusion of vetiver and patchouli, musk, coumarin and oak moss – a typical 1980s masculine fragrance uniform.

 

 

i find similarities with the old jules christian dior and macassar rochas, and in this comparison the original version looks heartier and warmer. one could say, more human and oriental. besides spicy-coniferous soap, the fragrance can be compared to some balsams of taiga origin, which have herbs, pine needles, spices and roots, and balsamic dense sweetness.
each person is reminded of something specific from the past – i recall the tart smell and taste of balsam made of rhodeola rosea roots, the popular siberian alcohol-based potion. it’s a dark brown liquid of folk medicine, which was splashed into the sweetened taiga tea to lift the spirits of hunters and tourists in the middle of the day.

 

 

the artist himself at his 70+ years still works as evidenced by his website : jeanmarc sinan.com , there’s a permanent exhibition in his art center, the restaurant eat god and art has a permanent menu (dishes are prepared by the artist with his wife) and there are three fragrances on sale – their half-kilogram glass bottles were blown by the designer himself and then signed with his own hand.

the fragrance v.o. version originale jean-marc sinan can still be found on online auctions, but the price goes up to $599, although it is possible to find some cheaper bottles,  the most inexpensive option is the mini-bottles… just be weary of the fake copies as there are many. by uh