Elena Cvjetkovic – ‘The Plum Lady’ as a younger woman rising up in Bosnia age 7
I used to be born in a small city in central Bosnia. Effectively earlier than time, underweight, ft first. First images of me present a particularly skinny, wrinkled, jaundice-yellow face with a distinguished skinny, lengthy nostril. I lived, the nostril didn’t change that a lot.
Plitvice Lakes in Croatia by Elena Cvjetkovic©
My mother and father had been on a mission known as “connecting to Nature with all senses“, making my first olfactory reminiscences attain far behind backyard flowers. I sniffed crushed bugs on the windshield of our automotive, molehills, brown forest frogs, porcini and pheasant poop amongst different issues.
The Adriatic Sea by Elena Cvjetkovic© Croatia
Summertimes meant weeks spent on the coast of Adriatic Sea, studying to choose Mediterranean herbs, taking out pine tar caught in my hair, catching crickets, licking sea salt discovered on rocks, and memorizing 1001 totally different aromatic notes of the Sea.
Yves Saint Laurent Opium advert that includes Jerry Corridor, picture by Helmut Newton, 1977
Once I was sixteen I acquired a gift from my mother and father – my first bottle of fragrance. Afterward, new bottles got here 2-Three instances a 12 months. I used to be carrying YSL Rive Gauche Opium and Lancôme Magie Noire within the 1970s and Guerlain’s Nahema was the primary perfume I bought alone in 1980. I traveled so much, studied arduous, and ’80s had been simply as intense as perfumes from that decade.
I keep in mind effectively the day I held a bottle of the newly launched Lancome Tresor in my palms in 1991. That Tresor bottle, and what was left of another fragrance I had, lasted me for 5 years. 1.916 days and one evening to be actual, from Easter of 1991 to the New 12 months’s Eve in 1995, for the reason that starting till the top of the brutal Independence Conflict in Croatia.
You see, if you find yourself effectively conscious that in any given second you would possibly lose all of your materials possessions and doubtless your life as effectively, priorities shift.
Carrying fragrance throughout nights spent in underground shelters wasn’t actually an choice. Shopping for fragrance? An inappropriate and unaffordable luxurious. Contents of my purse had been restricted to survival fundamentals: a bottle of water, one chocolate bar, a small field of crackers, ID and the medical health insurance card, a small transistor, and sure, pink lipstick. One little factor to protect sanity. That is what covers your wants in case of a normal hazard or air-strike alert and subsequent keep in moldy previous underground shelters, smelling of breath, hair, pores and skin, and sweat of a bunch of strangers caught collectively for who is aware of how lengthy.
I’ve realized what concern, uncertainty, shock, destruction and ache odor like. And but, I labored, traveled, functioned, lived and cherished. You adapt. La vita e bella…
Courtesy of Comme des Garcons
My aromatic awakening came about in London, in early 1995.I used to be on a enterprise journey and keep in mind having precisely 20 kilos in my pocket (a fortune!) after I headed towards London Metropolis. It felt so unusual to stroll these streets once more after virtually 5 years, so surreal. The Metropolis hasn’t modified. I’ve. The aimless stroll took me to a spot I discovered soothing: a perfumery. There it was. The primary Comme des Garcons, EDP 1994 launch! It took me a few minutes to collect the braveness to enter the shop, extra to ask to check the fragrance. I knew I couldn’t afford it. It occurred: I had by no means smelled something prefer it.
Comme des Garcons, EDP felt like a security internet: heat, cozy, full of totally different spices, mouthwatering, sensual and chic on the identical time. It was every part I didn’t really feel like anymore, every part I remembered being, and every part I wished to be once more.
I left holding tightly a tester in my hand. By no means in my life have I appreciated a tester greater than at that second.
I walked out feeling the utter pleasure of residing flooding my thoughts, physique, and soul, sat on the curb on a busy London avenue, tears operating down my face. I haven’t cried since early 1991, not as soon as in almost 5 years. Now I couldn’t cease crying, sniffing my wrists once in a while. Tears of pleasure, tears of reduction. I lastly felt alive once more.
I by no means bought Comme des Garcons, EDP, not even later, after I may. Nevertheless memorable this second was – I didn’t wish to relive it. I moved on, continued to journey, and discover the world of area of interest perfumes with a hungry nostril and an insatiable need to be taught extra.
I gather olfactory experiences.
Nobody can take that away from me.
For this reason I began to jot down area of interest fragrance evaluations two years in the past, to attempt to convey the deepest and most interesting feelings a fragrance can elicit: to share within the identify of life, love, magnificence, and artwork!
Elena Cvjetkovic with Mark Buxton at Esxence 2019
I met with Mark Buxton at Esxence Milano this 12 months. He is aware of nothing about my aromatic awakening, however I couldn’t resist hugging him. 24 years later.
–Elena Cvjetkovic, The Plum Lady
Elena’s 2019 Perfumed Plume pen and 2019 Esxence press badge
Editor’s Word: Elena is the 2019 Perfumed Plume Awardee for Finest Instapost. She has visited the US since 1982 a number of instances… however we’ll look ahead to her guide to learn more- Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
Elena’s Aromatic Awakening is probably the most poignant that has been written in our sequence since its inception by Tama Blough, who handed January 9, 2015
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