L'Officiel Nose: Ulrich Lang
Ulrich Lang has an intensely visual perspective on fragrance. He grew up in South Germany with access to a perfumery within his grandmother’s beauty salon and later built professional experience at Aramis and L’Oreal, but trips to Switzerland’s Art Basel in the 1990s inspired him to incorporate contemporary photography into his work. After years of visiting galleries and discovering artists, Lang headed to New York’s Greenwich Village and founded his eponymous fragrance brand in 2003. Highlighting his visual interests, all packaging features a photographic interpretation of the fragrance it accompanies. The scents themselves are forward-thinking as well, working classic notes together in ways that feel distinctly contemporary.
Lang’s latest creation is 17 Nandan Road, named after the address of Shanghai’s Guangqi Garden. Celebrating the flowers that bloom there in October, Osmanthus is at the heart, made more complex with notes including green leaves, Sicilian lemon, suede, and musk. The floral fragrance has intriguing depth, and Chinese author and poet Song Yuan created the perfect photographic accompaniment, a blurred visual of the blooms that beckons the viewer to experience the scent inside the box. Obviously, a creation so fascinating to multiple senses would have an effortlessly exciting life to match, so Lang imagined 17 Nandan Road’s cultural preferences for L’Officiel USA.
If 17 Nandan Road was the star of its own movie, which actor would play the starring role?
Gemma Chan.
What color does your fragrance smell like?
Golden Papaya Yellow.
Which city/place in the world does your fragrance encapsulate best?
Shanghai.
If you had to place your fragrance in an iconic decade past, which one would it be?
The 1950s, when people wore brightly colored wardrobes.
What item from your wardrobe would you compare your scent to?
A t-shirt in a bright buttery yellow that is close to the color of our packaging. Uplifting and casual.
What genre of music do you think your fragrance most aligns with and why?
Folk. It's laid back and personal, and there is a certain simplicity to it.
If your fragrance had a night out on the town, what drink would it order at the bar?
An Osmanthus martini.
If you were to relate your new scent to a book, what would it be? Why?
A book of poetry by Song Yuan who also created the visual for the fragrance. I would like it to be written by someone who grew up with the scent of Osmanthus.
If your new fragrance had a soundtrack, what three sounds would play once you spray the scent?
Songs by Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins.
If it wasn’t called 17 Nandan Road, what would it be called?
Delicate Reign.
