Sébastien Jondeau still marvels at the late Karl Lagerfeld‘s passion for scented candles, which at one time bordered on the compulsive.
“He used to buy hundreds of Diptyque candles every month,” he says. “He was one of their biggest clients.”
The German designer also hoovered up candles from Paris concept store Colette, its fragrance based on fresh figs, dispatching them to his various homes. It was only when Choupette, his beloved Birman cat, came into his life that Lagerfeld eased up on the flaming home accessories.
During their summers in Saint-Tropez, Lagerfeld and Jondeau, his longtime bodyguard, confidante and personal assistant, would occasionally pop into the homegrown Maison ST shop, which makes personal and home fragrances.
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In the years since Lagerfeld’s passing, Jondeau has blossomed further into the public spotlight, as an ambassador and product consultant for the Karl Lagerfeld brand; a design consultant at Fendi on sport-related clothing and accessories; an Instagram personality with a ripped physique, an adorable daughter and nearly 55,000 followers, and a serial entrepreneur, recently investing in Anima, a trendy Italian eatery at 78 Rue du Cherche-Midi in Paris.
Still, he was surprised when Maison ST rang him up about a year ago and proposed a Sébastien Jondeau candle. “I said, ‘What?'” Jondeau says of his immediate reaction. “For me, it was a little absurd.”
While the proposal flattered his ego, he respectfully declined Maison ST founder Laure Beretti’s offer, insisting it was not a recipe for success for either of them.
Not long after, a lightbulb went off: What if he were to conjure special moments shared with Lagerfeld in the South of France?
Cue a trio of candles that evoke powerful olfactive memories for Jondeau, who spent quality time with the designer on his jet, in his convertible, and in his living room at the summer villa he rented in Ramatuelle.
It took about a year of development to create “Dans les Airs,” evoking the smells of a private plane on the tarmac, a blend of burning jet fuel and sumptuous leather seats; “Sur la Route,” reminiscent of rain on concrete highways in the Var region, plus the pine forests that flank them, and “Un Après-midi à Ramatuelle,” bringing to vivid life the garden-scented winds that blew into the windows of Lagerfeld’s vacation home, while Colette candles were burning.
“It’s a way to explain this very beautiful Saint-Tropez story,” says Jondeau, who also created the illustrations that are engraved on the glass vessels housing the scented wax.
Realized with ingredients from Grasse, the candles retail for 69 euros at Maison ST in Saint-Tropez and its online store from Dec. 7, and perhaps in select specialty stores in future.
“Of course, when I worked on this, it reminded me of so many things,” he says. “It’s hard because I miss Karl every day, but at the same time, I’m very happy because that’s part of the heritage, the real one that Karl gave me. He gave me the chance to continue his story.”
Jondeau had his first brush with the famous designer as a 15-year-old from a rough-and-tumble Paris neighborhood conscripted to move some 18th-century furniture.
He would go on to strut his stuff in Chanel fashion shows and pose for Karl Lagerfeld menswear campaigns. An avid kickboxer who has fought professionally and trains intensively daily, the strapping Jondeau detailed his life next to the famous designer in his 2021 Flammarion book, “Ça va, cher Karl?”
Jondeau says he learned quite a bit about scent from Lagerfeld, who flitted between a variety of designer scents from Comme des Garçons, Tom Ford, Acqua Di Parma, Terry de Gunzburg and Maison Margiela, in addition to key Karl Lagerfeld scents.
The designer would often receive novelties from his signature brand’s fragrance licensee, Inter Parfums SA, and once he passed a gift set of multiple Van Cleef & Arpels scents to Jondeau, who settled on the Bois d’Iris option and has never swayed.
Having spent more than 20 years at Lagerfeld’s side, Jondeau picked up some of the designer’s entrepreneurial spirit. About a dozen years ago, he told his boss he wanted to do a line of sunglasses and told him his concept.
Lagerfeld immediately started sketching, and came up with the name, a logo and other branding elements. The timing was not opportune, so Jondeau put the project on the back burner.
“I still have the sketch,” he notes. “I have a nice story to tell people. I only want to do things with integrity and legitimacy. When you have this kind of story, why should I not tell it?”