It’s Not “Sold Out.” It’s SOLD OUT!: Gérald Ghislain on the Betrayal of the Senses

For 25 years, Gérald Ghislain has written stories through perfume, not as products, but as emotional portals. With every fragrance, he builds a dialogue: between memory and instinct, between what we think we know and what we actually feel.

The This Is Not a Blue Bottle collection was born from that tension, inspired by Magritte’s playful provocation (“This is not a pipe”) and Yves Klein’s immaterial blue: an invitation to question what we see, what we name, and what we believe.

With SOLD OUT!, Ghislain takes the idea even further. Not into marketing, into meaning. He calls it a clean break, a new era, a perfume that dares to explore the betrayal not of words… but of the senses.

Below, he shares why “smell” shouldn’t be a taboo word in luxury, why perfume can’t be reduced to pyramids and raw materials, and why SOLD OUT! isn’t meant to comfort or seduce but to make you feel invincible.

Gérald, you’ve just launched your latest opus, SOLD OUT!, in the This Is Not a Blue Bottle collection. Where does it fit within Histoires de Parfums, your brand of 25 years?
Yes, 25 years already! A quarter of a century spent writing stories with and through perfume. What fascinates me is how scent is tied to memory more than any other sense — it sparks emotions instantly. For me, perfume is a way to connect deeply with others. Each fragrance I create is a piece of me: sometimes a side of my personality, sometimes a tribute to someone I admire, or even a question that obsesses me. What I want is to share those emotions and open a door so others can enter my world — and enrich it with their own. It’s a dialogue, really. The This Is Not a Blue Bottle collection came after years of this back-and-forth, human and creative.

Remind us of the concept behind this collection.
Magritte’s famous line, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” always struck me. He invites us to question what we see, how we name things. A painting of a pipe isn’t a pipe you can smoke — it’s an idea. I love that surrealist trick: playful, a little cheeky, but also thought-provoking. And then there’s Yves Klein with his pure, immaterial blue. Perfume is like that: an abstraction, invisible yet powerful, a memory or a sensation without matter. That’s what I wanted to explore — an idea, a color, a feeling that doesn’t have to be pinned down.

What do you mean by “abstraction”?
Perfume is impossible to touch, and almost impossible to describe precisely. We end up using metaphors, but they’re always subjective. How can you really put scent into words? How do you share it? That question is at the heart of the collection.

And with SOLD OUT!, what story are you telling today?
With SOLD OUT!, I wanted a clean break. A new era. “Disruptive” may be overused, but it fits: we need new ways of looking at things. If Magritte played with the betrayal of words, SOLD OUT! dares to explore the betrayal of the senses.

But “sold out” in English means “out of stock.” Isn’t that just marketing?
Not at all. First, it’s a wink to Magritte — surreal, ironic, meant to be taken with a smile. But yes, it also speaks of rarity, of privilege. Think of La Scala in Milan when a performance is sold out: only those who got in experience it. With SOLD OUT!, it’s the same. It’s not just a perfume, it’s a moment. And to live it, you have to accept being surprised, unsettled.

What exactly are you shaking up?
The way we talk about perfume. Klein invented his own blue — why couldn’t Histoires de Parfums invent its own smell? And yes, I use the word smell. In luxury perfumery, it’s almost taboo. We talk about olfactory pyramids, top notes, base notes… but honestly, is that what people feel? Who among us can name every raw material listed on a bottle? When someone wears Chanel N°5, you don’t think: “Here comes the citrus, now the aldehydes, oh, a vanilla drydown.” What strikes you is the genius of the perfumer, and Gabrielle Chanel’s spirit in the formula. Whether it’s a chypre or an oriental doesn’t matter. What matters is the pleasure, the emotion, the way it becomes yours.

So if not in traditional terms, how do you describe SOLD OUT!?
It doesn’t smell like a flower or a spice. It smells like the way I feel when I’m confident, free, strong. In one word: invincible. SOLD OUT! is an idea, an emotion, a sensation. So let’s put it this way: it smells like the best version of yourself. It’s something very intimate, and I hope that intimacy touches something universal. Everyone can make it their own — their perfume.

If you had to capture it by saying what it is not…?
It’s not obvious. Not easy to categorize. It’s not comforting, not seductive. It doesn’t try to please. It plays by no rules. It blends unexpected ingredients in bold, unapologetic ways. It’s not “just another perfume.” It stands apart.

And if SOLD OUT! had a motto?
I’d borrow Rabbi Nachman’s words:
“Never ask your way from someone who knows it, for you risk not getting lost.”

Learn more about This is not a blue bottle 1/.8: SOLD OUT!