Ormaie sniffs out scent of memories

French fragrance house founded by a mother-and-son team makes Singapore debut at Escentials

- Stacey Chia

PARIS — In 1985, Madam Marie-Lise Jonak, then a 20-year-old model, met a French diver in Paris who worked in Singapore.

He swept her off her feet, and she soon found herself en route to the Republic on her first trip out of France, unable to speak English and filled with uncertainty.

On May 8, as Ormaie—the luxurious line of fragrances that Madam Jonak co-founded with her son Baptiste Bouygues—launched at multi-label beauty retailer Escentials in Singapore, the city took on an even deeper meaning.

It is a career milestone she could never have imagined as a shy young woman stepping off the plane all those years ago.

Over lunch in March with The Straits Times at a brasserie in Paris' dynamic 9th arrondissement, where Ormaie's atelier is located, Madam Jonak reflects on arriving in Singapore and how the drive and dynamism in the city transformed her.

Now 59, what struck her the most, she said, was seeing "many powerful women" pursuing interesting careers and supporting their families, something she said was less visible in the France she grew up in.

"By the time I went back to Paris at 28, I had travelled all over Asia, spoke a second language and was so much more secure. I picked up the phone and called the CEO of a company that I wanted to work at, which was not what anyone did back then," she said in French-accented English.