Discovered in the Paris metro in 2012, Benjamin Clementine will be in concert in September in Paris, at the Salle Pleyel, to play his latest album, And I Have Been. The artist made his film debut in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and will be in Steve McQueen’s next World War II film. After a collaboration with Burberry, he is the face of Givenchy’s new fragrance, Gentleman Society.
What types of perfumes do you like?
I live in the mountains in California and I like to open my windows in the morning to breathe in the smell of nature, the trees, the sea nearby. It’s quite close to Gentleman Society, a fragrance that is both woody and saline. It is not intrusive, on the contrary it is soothing, with great attention to detail, which is what I like.
Do you find anything in common between music and perfume?
During the Covid, I worked a lot on sound engineering, which consists of finding the right setting of sound frequencies in order to balance the notes with the silences. Mozart said that music is in the silence between the notes. It’s the same for a perfume, which should neither be too strong nor too light.
What does Givenchy represent to you?
When I was homeless in Paris, I walked in different neighborhoods, especially around the rue de Saint-Petersburg, in Montmartre or towards the Opera. Many of the artists I admire lived there: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Satie, Debussy… I passed in front of luxury boutiques and it was very far from my life. I never would have imagined that this collaboration could exist, but Givenchy is an open, authentic brand that respects artists. That’s how we move forward, by confronting the worlds.
