Here, smell! Taste!” When she was a child growing up not far from the Mediterranean, Christelle Laprade learned to speak and began calling out to her parents every time she got her hands on something. Later on, she would follow people around in the streets and try to guess what perfume they were wearing. After graduating from high school, she found her true vocation: she would be a fine perfumer and nothing else, so as to break into people’s lives and leave a long- lasting impression. Guided by the belief that perfume should be fun, she constructs fragrances with a feel-good approach. Her unwavering determination and taste for the unusual are a good fit with a city like New York. With her fashion-model looks, stilettos and red lipstick, this organised, scientific and well- educated young woman seems to be the very incarnation of the French American dream. Until one gets to talk to her and discovered the ambivalence that emanates from her personality and her olfactory creations alike. She calls this “trash-glam”. Not for the faint-hearted!