First Fragment
There is an island where the summer sun shines almost all year round. Come the afternoon, a furtive wind takes you there. The hot wind envelops you. The wind sings in the tall grasses and the trees. The gentle wind brings a radiant smile to your lips. The wind transports this eternally young garden of Greece to you. It carries you to the island of Kythira, whose name alone is an invitation to travel.
Second Fragment
It’s a wonder. A surprise. You are in a dry garden, among untamed nature. A garden that is neither green nor floral. A blond garden. A garden that grows without rain or the human hand. Alongside olive trees, fresh pistachios and grasses exude a scent so powerful that the breeze carries it all the way to you. In the distance, shades of blue are newly born of the sea and sky. You feel a new strength. Is this the happiness promised by the bright sky where the sun never fades? Is it the strength of the olive tree, whose trunk you embrace on an irresistible impulse?
Third Fragment
A garden that brings you back to gentleness. A garden that takes you on a journey. A universal garden where each person rediscovers their own memories and sensations. A welcoming garden that exalts familiar scents. A wild garden that rekindles the energy of free spirits. Between earth, sky and sea, steeped in sunshine, it is blond, white and blue.
Fourth fragment
Legend has it that Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, was born on the island of Kythira. An island where Mother Earth is generous. An island where everyone reconnects with sensations and memories. The tender island of childhood, the blissful island of desires, the most secret and truest island of the self. At journey’s end, when evening comes and thewarm wind subsides, the joyful heart warmed by the enveloping scent holds the radiant presence of Greece. And it whispers the words “I am home”.
“My garden grew close to the ground, but when I looked up, I discovered the presence of olive trees, planted like the backbone of the blond hair formed by the grasses. I also saw the vivid flesh of a pink pistachio, fresh and tender like rosy cheeks.”
Christine Nagel, Hermès perfumer
Fifth fragment
Un Jardin à Cythère
How do you capture wild nature and bottle it? For this seventh opus in the Parfums-Jardins collection, Christine Nagel has recreated her very first trip to the island of Kythira, in the Peloponnese. Reconnecting with the magic of alchemists, she has engaged in poetic creation, in a quest for the sensations triggered by golden grasses, olive wood and fresh pistachio, of which there is no extract. It is a garden of memories, born of recollections of travels around Greece and elevated by Hermès’ in-house perfumer.
The iconic lantern-shaped bottle is the vessel for this blond, sun-drenched juice. It is offered in three classic formats:30 ml, 50 ml and 100 ml. A 200 ml refill is also available.
The box is illustrated by Greek artist Elias Kafouros, whose distinctive style is achieved using ink, pen and paint. His detailed compositions have inspired the designs of many Hermès scarves, including Eleftheria, meaning “freedom”, created in 2021 for the bicentennial of Greek independence. Depicting the grass browned by the sun and caressed by the wind, the pink of the fresh pistachios and the green of the olive trees against the blue backdrop of the sea, Elias Kafouros brings together all the components of Un Jardin à Cythère.
