Sonia Godet: Continuing 100+ Year Legacy Of Timeless Scents
s I walked through the tiny cobble roads of the french medieval town Saint Paul de Vence, I couldn’t help but notice a small boutique that looked like something out of a fairytale.
I was drawn in only to discover a beautiful array of scents that evoke romance, creativity, a Jardin in bloom, and artistic musings. As I explored the history of Godet, I tested each fragrance like a work of art, packaged in hand-blown colored glass, each provoking the senses in very distinct and graceful ways. I couldn’t help but feel connected to a time I didn’t know, and yet I was there. Learning the rich stories behind their creations, I knew I had found a new fragrance to add to my collection.
I decided to meet with Sonia Godet, master perfumer. She is the nose of the Maison Godet, and great-granddaughter of Julien-Joseph Godet who founded the brand in 1901. Sonia, welcome. It is such a pleasure to have you here with us today.
Sonia: Thank you so much. The pleasure is mine. And I’m, I’m really honored, very happy to be with you today to share that time. Right now. I’m actually in Italy, because we are doing the harvest of rosemary. So I’m in a motel room. So sorry. But I really wanted to talk to you and to have an interview. And I’m traveling a lot. So I thought it was the perfect time. So yes, I’m very, very happy. And I cannot wait to have your question and to to dive in the experience of good
Cultured Life: Tell us a little about your early life growing up as a Godet and how this shaped your decision to become a perfumer?
Sonia: At the age of four, I was already using my nose to smell every single ingredient. Around seven years old, I was able to compose my first perfume creation. It was really crazy. Because at the time, my parents were not into perfumery.
It was my grandfather. My parents were artists, they were not part of the perfume dream.
I could spend seven hours in the shops just to smell each fragrance. I was crazy about it. That was my favorite moment, when I was a little girl, to go and meet with my grandfather, because he was a “nose” too.
So he could understand me and he was wonderful. He was showing me all the different raw materials, all the flowers, the fruits, the woods. Also, you know, vanilla, so I could learn and I could, you know, really indulge myself in it. And it was wonderful! I have to say, as I was little, the thing that was special about me is that I don’t give any value to the smell.
Like, everything is interesting. For example, the gas, the smell of the gas that you put in your car is as interesting as the smell of a rose. And for me what’s interesting and what makes me really vibrate. To create the mix of the two. For example, you mix the smell of the gas, and then you have something coming up. And for me, that’s how I work is really to compose and to combine ingredients together to make and to sublimate one ingredient.
Cultured Life: You were a perfumer in New York for the Maison Cartier for two years. What led you to New York and to work for another brand?
Sonia: The brand Godet was started in 1901 by my great grandfather, then my grandfather in 1952 took over. Then in 1976, the brand completely stopped. So there was no more production, it stopped completely because there were many, many synthetic ingredients that arrived on the market.
I was born in 1988. So 12 years after the closure. I studied to become a nose; a perfumer. At first, I joined the L’Oreal group, which was my first job. This was very, very cool.
It was not really me. I was missing something. Because it’s more like mass production.
Then I was really lucky to be recruited by Cartier.
My job was to strategize around finding a fragrance that was the best for the North American markets. I loved it. The company was fantastic; it’s artistic in the design of jewelry. . For the perfume, they want to do the same. So it is a very artistic perfumery. I had the best time in New York for two years.
And then one day, my grandfather had a stroke. So I came back to France to see him, it was in October 2016. I took care of him. I went through the house and found a suitcase. In that suitcase I found old bottles, formulas, and everything from Godet.
That day, I decided to relaunch the brand. It became an obsession for me.
I left my job in New York, to come back here and to relaunch the brand and my goal was to redo the old formulas. To find those ingredients again, you know, because those are very rare and all natural. It was difficult to find the producers of flowers and I was able to reconnect with them and then to redo the formula but that took me almost one year.
We work with a master glassmaker and they have been producing and making bottles for 100 years.In French we call it raffiné, meaning you really go above and beyond to make the bottle and to make everything around the perfume beautiful. Otherwise I was not going to do it.
Cultured Life: You still work with the original formulas of your ancestors. What inspires your new fragrances?
At first I focused on doing all the older creations and then starting 2017, I wanted to do my own creations. Basically every two to three months I make a new fragrance. I am crazy! And you know, the worst is for my husband to keep up with me because I don’t sleep at night. I just go into my lab and I work for five hours on perfume. I dream about perfume. I’m crazy obsessed with it!
Now that I don’t work for a brand anymore, I mean I work for my own brand but I don’t work for a corporation anymore.
So I’m very free. I’m free to create and I don’t have budget frustration or anything, so I just create as much as I want.
I love it because when we launch, we launch 50 pieces, 100 pieces. We don’t have to work really long to sell 1 million. I don’t have to study a special market. No, I just do like artists, I work with my own inspiration. And I create what I want to do. To make perfume like no others are going to make it, really different from the usual codes that we have in custom. I like to just go differently and out of the box.
We work with a master glassmaker and they have been producing and making bottles for 100 years. In French we call it raffiné, meaning you really go above and beyond to make the bottle and to make everything around the perfume beautiful. Otherwise I was not going to do it.
Cultured Life: You still work with the original formulas of your ancestors. What inspires your new fragrances?
At first I focused on doing all the older creations and then starting 2017, I wanted to do my own creations. Basically every two to three months I make a new fragrance. I am crazy! And you know, the worst is for my husband to keep up with me because I don’t sleep at night. I just go into my lab and I work for five hours on perfume. I dream about perfume. I’m crazy obsessed with it!
Now that I don’t work for a brand anymore, I mean I work for my own brand but I don’t work for a corporation anymore. So I’m very free. I’m free to create and I don’t have budget frustration or anything, so I just create as much as I want. I love it because when we launch, we launch 50 pieces, 100 pieces. We don’t have to work really long to sell 1 million. I don’t have to study a special market. No, I just do like artists, I work with my own inspiration. And I create what I want to do. To make perfume like no others are going to make it, really different from the usual codes that we have in custom. I like to just go differently and out of the box.
Sonia created Éternité Couture spicy notes of cognac aged in oak barrels and crossed with aromas from distilled grape and prunes.
Cultured Life: What is your vision for the future of the brand?
I mean the most important idea is to keep the quality of the brand. Really to keep it at a luxury standard and I hope you know that we will be able to keep our flower fields to where they are, to keep it sustainable, because that’s the challenge. We don’t know with climate change if we will be able to keep our flowers the way they are.
Also, my dream is to one day have my daughter, or you know, my son continue the story, but that’s for them. For now, we’re not able to say, but that would be to continue, of course. And really, I, as I said, I want to, to be able to protect the brand. You know, to protect our maison, to protect our history and to make sure we don’t have the same issue that we had in the 70s. To make sure we continue and we are sustainable with our own flowers, and our own production. And to stay independent, that’s what I wish for the brand.
HANNA FITZ GODET PICKS
Sous Le Figuier
A perfume created by Sonia inspired by her childhood days of laying under the fig tree in Saint Paul de Vence.
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