THE OTHER ROOM: EP. 164 - ODETTE FONTAINE
a few of Odette's favorite things 🌹
Odette Fontaine, Perfumer and Founder of Odette Parfum Co. joined me in the Perfume Room earlier this week (listen below ⬇️).
Today, she returns with even more fun, personal stories in The Other Room—the official Perfume Room companion post-show. Every Tuesday, hear from guests on their episode of Perfume Room podcast, and on Fridays, enjoy bonus content from those same guests, exclusively on Substack!
A former ballerina and now baker by day, Odette has spent her life dedicated to reviving the lost art of ballet and of French pastries. Odette Parfum Co. is merely the next step (battement??) in the vision. With fragrances inspired by the convergence of both of these mediums, Odette is quite literally scenting her dreams (and we are all luckier for it).
Fontaine invites you to experience Odette Parfum Co. as you would characters in a novel, letting the lore of both her fragrances and personal appearance remain yours to imagine. For that reason, her appearance remains shrouded in mystery.
Today, enjoy more about Odette’s upbringing, her daily holy grails, favorite ballerinas, go-to French bakery order, and more!
xx Emma
We need to know more about your time as a burlesque dancer!
Burlesque was a way to own a sense of presence, theatricality, and femininity. I wanted to explore a different technique and discipline other than classical ballet training while paying homage to a long lineage of performers who knew how to command a stage. Women like Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, Lili St. Cyr have always been luminous stars in my eyes. To save myself the embarrassment I will keep the stage name under my hat. Maybe one day I will reveal some old performance clips.
If you were to perform burlesque again, would you update anything in your act?
If I were starting over today? Perfume would be involved somehow, a giant factice perhaps, an interactive element with the audience…scent is so enrapturing.
Your references are RICH. Was culture consumption (i.e., B&W films, classic ballets, etc) woven into your childhood? Was it independent discovery?
It was a bit of both. But a lot of it was independent discovery, an insatiable curiosity for what came before. I would lose hours in books, in grainy footage of prima ballerinas, in the way light moves across celluloid in black-and-white films. There’s a romance in those worlds that modernity doesn’t always allow.
Your dad is an oil painter. Can you share more about the role art played in your home growing up?
Art was omnipresent. The scent of oil paint, tobacco and turpentine wafting from his studio —it all left an imprint. He taught me how to look, really look, at something. How a shadow isn’t just gray, but blue and violet and green. He always reminded to find and put love into the work. I carry that same meticulous attention into my work with parfum.
Tell me, how do each of these make you feel:
There is a really fantastic account on instagram that really pokes fun at this very thing, I believe it is managed by two former ballerinas.
It’s silly to think you can throw on a pair of pointe shoes with no experience and step into a principal role and it’s doing a disservice to all the people that have dedicated their lives to it. The aesthetic play-dressing part I am all for, ballet costumes are some of the most fabulous pieces that exist, but just hire dancers for your ad campaigns.
On the flip side, have you seen any amazing ballet-centric ads you love?
Oui! I cannot recall the exact year but Chloé made a short film featuring ballet dancers in one of their collections dancing in a studio and it was so well done. The garments were very gauzy and gossamer and lent themselves perfectly to balletic movement.
[ED. NOT - was it this? ⬇️]
As a coffee professional, can you share with us beans/brands/other that should be on our radars!
Single-origin Ethiopia Yirgacheffe beans are some of the best I have ever had. They often have a tea-like body and can have such interesting tasting notes like blueberry, tomato and wet florals.
Your perfect French bakery order:
A perfect croissant in the morning is like a tiny miracle. I love nutella alongside. Black coffee, lots of it, always.
Holy grail item in your life - a product you wholeheartedly recommend:
Just one?! I have to list a few: Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse, Lisa Eldridge lipsticks (kitten mischief), Panier des Sens hand wash, and Gaynor Minden pointe shoes.
How has it been navigating/learning the compliance aspect of perfumery?
A labyrinth of regulations and fine print! It’s a delicate dance between creativity and compliance, ensuring that what I make is safe, stable, and meets international standards.
You wake up in the morning with a social media notification that ___________ is wearing Odette Parfum Co. You freak out because this is all you’ve ever wanted! Who is _________ and what are they wearing?
Gillian Murphy (left) or Skylar Brandt (right). They are Principal Dancers at American Ballet Theatre and a huge inspiration for me in dance and in parfum. Pas de Chat—because it was my firstborn and wears beautifully in a studio setting and moves with you.
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