Le Sel d’Issey: the sacred ‘energy of salt’ inspires Issey Miyake’s new fragrance for men

Salt – evoked as a dialogue between earth and sea – is the creative starting point for Le Sel d’Issey, a new men’s fragrance launched by Issey Miyake this week in Tokyo.

The fragrance comes to life 30 years after Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme was released, an iconic water-inspired scent, whose minimalist form and fresh notes seduced a generation of wearers and left a deep imprint on the perfume world.

The new scent Le Sel d’Issey follows in the nature-rooted footsteps of its predecessor, reimagining the power of salt in an olfactory expression designed to ‘awaken the senses and stimulate energy’.

A sense of salt infuses the aroma – fresh and uplifting with a hint of sea – with layers of ingredients from both land and ocean (seaweed extract, natural ginger, vetiver), harmonised to create an alchemic ‘pulsation’ on the skin throughout the day.

The energy of salt also imbues the bottle, with its pure clear form fusing transparent glass, sharply lined chrome and refracted light, as dreamt up by Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka, a longtime Issey Miyake collaborator (behind the brand’s Issey Miyake Ginza / 442 store, for example, which opened in 2023).

The transparent bottle, gently elliptical and softly edged when held in the hands, is hewn from 20 per cent recycled glass, with a concave space inside its solid clear base creating dynamic lines that infuse its minimalist form with scattered shafts of light.

The atmosphere of movement is amplified by the clean-cut reflective surface of its solid chrome metal cap, while the minimalist paper packaging is crafted from 10 per cent upcycled seaweed, its matte texture evoking a sense of salt.

‘I wanted it to feel sacred’: Tokujin Yoshioka on Le Sel d’Issey’s bottle design

For Yoshioka, the starting point was the ‘energy’ of salt, which he aimed to evoke through a visual expression of ‘pure radiance’ and a ‘sense of light’. Speaking to Wallpaper* in Tokyo, he explains: ‘This was the last project Mr Miyake asked me to do during a phone call in 2022. I remember vividly the launch of L’Eau d'Issey. It had big impact on me. It felt like something very different, more Japanese than European.

‘This time, I wanted to create something very simple and very pure. I also wanted it to feel sacred – something that gives you energy when you wear it.’

Salt – known as shio in Japanese – is deeply steeped in the sacred in Japan, symbolising a sense of purification, often offered to gods in Shinto shrine rituals, sprinkled in sumo wrestling rings and placed on small dishes by doorways.

‘When Mr Miyake gave me the theme of salt, I thought a lot about what this means,’ Yoshioka explains. ‘It has slightly different meanings around the world. Salt for Japanese people is very sacred. It’s used in Shinto shrine purifications and to ward off bad spirits. But in a more universal context, salt is also an essential element to human life and also to the earth.’

Describing the play of transparency and light in the oval glass bottle, he adds: ‘I decided not to create a concrete shape of salt, this is more about the senses and inspiration. It’s an energy and a force, like salt itself. This is what I was trying to create and evoke.’

The fragrance itself, brought to life by Paris-based Beauté Prestige International, defies the challenge of salt being scentless through a careful harmony of natural notes from both land and ocean.

Perfumer Quentin Bisch explains: ‘I wanted to create the scent of the exact moment the waves roll back, transitioning between the earth and sea. Salt is the memory left behind by a wave on the earth and on the skin, almost like an imprint.’

Key to its composition is laminaria seaweed extract evoking a fresh marine edge, layered with the earthy wooden notes of oakmoss, vetiver and cedar alongside uplifting natural ginger.

‘Salt doesn’t have any smell,’ Christophe Venot, global fragrance brand director at Beauté Prestige International, tells Wallpaper*. ‘The seaweed is a natural extract from France and you need something like this to instantly convey the idea of salt. It creates an oceanic note.

‘Then we have the oakmoss, vetiver and cedar creating a vibrant earthy cocktail. Ginger brings energy, lifting everything, and the seaweed twists it all together. Plus on the top, a bit of saffron and musk.

‘This all creates a real pulsation. You spray it on your skin and imagine it will decrease in intensity but it doesn’t. It pulsates in waves all day long, in cycles of energy, softness, salt. That is the magic of the formula.’

‘Issey Miyake Le Sel d’Issey: Imagination of Salt’ at 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo

The new scent officially launched at gallery 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo, alongside the exhibition ‘Issey Miyake Le Sel d’Issey: Imagination of Salt’, with installations also designed by Yoshioka.

Here, in the angular minimalist confines of the Tadao Ando-designed gallery space, a scattering of circular metallic stands displayed the new perfume bottle alongside sculptural raw salt rocks.

Clear spherical lids on the stands could also be lifted, allowing visitors to inhale the new scent, while a cymatics-inspired campaign film by Marcus Tomlinson, exploring the visual expression of sound waves, unfolded dynamically on a nearby wall.

Just outside the gallery, rolling cloud-like waves of mist rose into the sky every few minutes from a long low-lying white wall created by Yoshioka, gently releasing the aroma of Le Sel d’Issey into the air.

‘Many years ago, I predicted that people would go beyond the design of forms towards the invisible,’ says the artist. ‘In our digitalised world, form is not the most important theme – what people are looking for is something that goes behind our senses. It’s about memory, experience, time – and how we can design and create these.’

He adds: ‘When I smelled this scent for the first time, I immediately thought of umi – the sea. I could feel the strength, warmth and kindness of the sea. It felt like the energy of nature. I hope that the experience of this scent will create new memories for people.’

The presence of the late Miyake lingered tangibly at the Tokyo launch, living on through the expression of his passion for salt in the new scent. Midori Kitamura, the chairman of Miyake Design Studio, says: ‘I have worked for the creation of Mr Miyake for over 50 years. Since the 1980s, I have also been involved in the fragrance development.

‘As I wrote in our recent book [Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022], Mr Miyake expressed about all of his creations, not only clothes but also fragrance, as follows: “I believe there is hope in design. Design evokes surprise and joy in people.” Based on this concept, we will continue to pursue such fragrance that has timeless value and is unseen before.‘

isseymiyakeparfums.com

Le Sel d’Issey by Issey Miyake is also available from online stockists including theperfumeshop.com

‘Issey Miyake Le Sel d’Issey: Imagination of Salt’ runs at 21_21 Design Sight until 8 September 2024, 2121designsight.jp