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[Michaelangelica]

Yes, I inhaled, boasts a man with perfume in his blood

rederic Malle was virtually baptised in perfume. As a child, the grandson of Serge Heftler-Louiche, who founded Parfums Christian Dior, was often sprinkled with samples brought home by his mother, Marie-Christine Heftler.

She was the company's art director and Malle remembers her working with the legendary perfumer Edmond Roudnitska on Eau Sauvage, the men's fragrance concocted in 1966. "It went through stages and these stages went on to my brother, Guillaume, and I. So we were part of it. I was three, four."

Malle, 46, never knew his grandfather, a man of taste, with a talent for figures, who had helped to create such classics as Miss Dior, Diorama and Diorissimo. He died in 1959, three years before Malle was born.

And although seemingly fated to enter the perfume business, Malle did not do it until eight years ago with the creation of Editions de Parfums. It has been so successful in the US that he moved with his wife, Marie, a psychologist, and their four children to New York two years ago. It will be launched in Australia next week, when the Sydney and Melbourne outlets join his 50 other stores in 15 countries.

Malle could have gone into film, like his famous uncle, the director Louis Malle, or even banking, like his father, Jean-Francois (who financed some of Louis's early films). But he didn't automatically follow in any of their footsteps. He didn't go to work for Christian Dior like his mother. He didn't go to Harvard University to study like his father. He didn't go to film school.

Instead, in 1982, Malle veered off the Ivy League track to attend New York University and study art history and business. "I always felt in my heart that both were extremely connected. I always liked commerce and I always liked art," he says.

Fashion - Entertainment - smh.com.au