WorkOlfactory — Pierre Hermé × L’Occitane
Olfactory — Pierre Hermé × L’Occitane
A virtual reality story in which you handle real objects, until you lift a cloche — and find a macaron with the notes of the fragrance, which you can eat.
The context
L’Occitane and Pierre Hermé were opening a shared store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The perfumer and the pastry chef had created something special together: macarons with flavours very close to the olfactory world of the fragrance. It called for an experience worthy of this meeting of smell and taste, installed in the store and open to the opening-day public.
My role
I carried the project end to end: pre-sales, to win the brands over to the concept, then technical direction and installation in the store.
What it changed
The experience turned the store opening into a complete sensory moment: you listened to a story, handled objects, smelled, then tasted. It made the collaboration between the two houses tangible, where a simple window display would only have announced it.
What was delivered
A virtual reality experience on HTC Vive, built around physical objects placed in front of the visitor and synchronised with the virtual world. A narrative led towards the item offered for tasting. At the end, a physical cloche appeared in the virtual world: lifting it revealed a real macaron to eat. Sensors and Arduino electronics linked the real objects to the experience, with full installation in store.
What remains
Virtual reality was never stronger than when it handed back to the real world. The moment people remembered was not the 3D world — it was the cloche you lift and the macaron you eat. A successful immersive experience does not try to replace the physical world: it brings you back to it.