Against the Trend: Claude Marchal and Nathalie Feisthauer on MDCI’s New Vétyver Messager

New fragrances from MDCI Parfums are rare events. The French house, founded by Claude

Marchal, has built its reputation on an almost stubborn resistance to the rhythm of the industry.

Launches are infrequent, compositions are carefully considered, and each addition to the collection

must justify its existence. Each new release is also notable for another reason: MDCI tends to

collaborate with some of the most distinctive and respected perfumers of their generation, creators

with a clear personal signature. Nathalie Feisthauer is one of them, and Vétyver Messager marks

her fourth fragrance for the house.

The latest addition to the MDCI repertoire was born from a rather unexpected observation.

The idea

emerged when a salesperson at Jovoy remarked to Claude Marchal that MDCI did not have a

vetiver fragrance in its range. The comment lingered. “For a long time I had been thinking about

adding another fragrance to the ‘Painters and Perfumers’ collection,” Marchal explains. “But none

of the proposals I had received had really excited me.” Sometimes ideas appear gradually,

sometimes they arrive almost accidentally. In this case the suggestion simply stayed in Marchal’s

mind until it began to feel inevitable.

Although MDCI occasionally exchanges ideas with perfumers in the early stages of a project,

Marchal has little patience for formulas driven by market expectations. “I have been advised more

than once to follow trends,” he says with quiet irony. “But that has never been my intention.”

Vetiver, however, offered something different: a material capable of many interpretations while

remaining deeply rooted in classical perfumery. “Perhaps what makes vetiver interesting today,”

Marchal says, “is precisely its versatility. It is a note that can be worked in many different ways

while still remaining recognisable.”

To translate this idea into a fragrance, Marchal turned to Nathalie Feisthauer. “I contacted Nathalie first because of her great technical mastery and her ability to listen,” he says. “She immediately accepted the assignment and delivered a result that satisfied me completely.” Feisthauer remembers

the brief with amusement. “It was extremely simple,” she says. “Claude told me: make me a

vetiver.”

The request was somewhat ironic. Years earlier, when the two first met, Feisthauer had already

suggested that MDCI should include a vetiver fragrance in its portfolio. “I told him, ‘Claude, your

collection is missing a beautiful vetiver.’ And he answered, ‘Yes, I know, but vetiver is not really

my thing. I am not even sure I like the note.’” Yet eventually the idea resurfaced. “One day he said

to me, ‘Nathalie, perhaps we should try a vetiver.’ And I thought, really? But of course I was

delighted.”

For Feisthauer, vetiver is above all a magnificent raw material. “It could almost be a perfume on its

own,” she says. “It is incredibly rich and beautiful. For me it already has the quality of a skin

fragrance. A man wearing a beautiful vetiver essence alone can smell absolutely wonderful.”

Traditionally vetiver has been associated with masculine perfumery, and Vétyver Messager retains

that heritage. Yet Feisthauer insists that the fragrance is not restrictive. “A woman could wear it

perfectly well. Vetiver may be traditionally masculine, but it is simply a beautiful note.”

Rather than transforming the material beyond recognition, Feisthauer focused on framing it. “My

goal was for the vetiver to be clearly present. I wanted it to be something you can truly smell.

Everything else in the formula is there to highlight it.” The composition opens with a sparkling combination of citrus and spices: bergamot, grapefruit, pink pepper, cardamom and coriander, with

geranium adding a classical aromatic facet often associated with masculine compositions. A small

touch of carrot essence introduces a vivid, almost electric lift.

In the base the vetiver is accompanied by moss, tonka bean absolute and vanilla absolute, creating a

gentle warmth in the drydown. “It is not a gourmand fragrance,” Feisthauer explains,

“but there is a certain softness there.” For her the beauty of vetiver lies in its complexity. “It is rich, slightly earthy, with the smell of roots. There is also a faint smoky nuance that can remind you of resins.

But at the same time it is very smooth, almost creamy.” When asked for an image she smiles. “For

me it evokes roots in a humid jungle. There is something damp and green about it, something that

reminds me of a forest.”

Despite the richness of the material, Feisthauer deliberately avoided fashionable shortcuts. “The

idea was not to overload the fragrance with very commercial effects. You could easily add things

that appear in many formulas today, especially in mainstream perfumery. But that would dilute the

character of vetiver. I wanted people to feel that it was a real vetiver.”

The collaboration between Feisthauer and Marchal was built on mutual trust. “We have known each other for several years and it is always a very pleasant exchange. Claude gives a lot of freedom.

There is respect and kindness. It makes the work enjoyable.” For Marchal, MDCI’s slow pace of

creation is a deliberate choice. “We release fragrances quite rarely. After so many creations it is not

easy to find something truly new that deserves to join the collection. I have no desire to follow

trends. In fact I prefer not to know them.”

In that sense Vétyver Messager carries a quiet message about perfumery itself. It speaks about an

idea of elegance that does not belong to any particular season or trend, but to something more

enduring. Feisthauer herself compares vetiver to a beloved cashmere sweater one keeps for years:

comforting, familiar and quietly refined, and a reminder that true style rarely follows fashion.