Club International - IFM Alumni USA - IFM PORTRAIT Franck Salzwedel

The IFM Alumni Club USA shares with us this week a portrait across the Atlantic of one of its members, Franck Salzwedel, a 1990 e-MBA graduate who became a perfumer and designer in New York. 

These portraits, in their great diversity, are meant to stimulate our professional ambitions. They highlight the projects on which the interviewed alumni wish to interact with the community and the way they want to contribute to the IFM Alumni.

Getting to know us better also facilitates business opportunities between alumni who share common sensibilities in fashion and design. And these encounters encourage us to bring together our complementary skills to bring new projects to fruition.

Dear IFM community,

We are glad to share with you our latest portrait. Franck Salzwedel is a French fragrance creative. He has held various positions at L’Oréal Luxe for 15 years, working with prestigious fashion designer brands like Giorgio Armani and Viktor & Rolf, developing some of their most acclaimed signature fragrances - Acqua di Gio, Mania, Flowerbomb, Spicebomb.

Born in France to German parents, he spent his early years in Asia, which gave him a taste for luminous vibrant colors, exotic scents and flavors. In 2007, he established himself in New York City.

Franck is also an artist who loves exploring the infinite radiance of color field painting. As he explored the chroma- measure of color saturation- he soon realized a parallel language between color and fragrance. The connection between the two became so obvious to him that he created a premium line of perfumes to celebrate the infinite radiance of color and the transcendent power of scent. In late 2015 he introduced his perfume collection called Élisire at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. A few months later, Élisire was launched at Colette in Paris and The Standard Hotel Spa in Miami.

In addition to developing Elisire, Franck has a broad experience as a consultant in fragrance creation for luxury brands.

Franck, after graduating from business school, you strongly felt the need to reconnect with your creativity and you decided to apply to the IFM Management Program. What were the major elements that motivated your career choices ?

The major element that inspired my career was my aspiration for anything creative and artistic from fashion to beauty, and also my childhood in Indonesia which gave me a strong taste for all things international—the exotic and a certain flair for fantasy.

But before finding my way and feeling at ease with my choices, I explored different routes: I started with a Business School that appeared to me as the most international and had the broadest areas of study. I loved the idea of having my head in books to learn as much as I could and reach for the stars and get a diploma that would award me an interesting job. That being said, once I had integrated the school, I was never fully inspired. I tried to dive into the different subjects but never felt the click.

I sensed the need for pursuing my studies and onnce I graduated I met a wonderful person that helped me to formulate my aspirations. I told her about my unspoken dreams, my passion for fashion and anything creative, my love for textile and colors, the desire of thriving personally in that field.After our phone conversation,  Véronique Delignette convinced me in 2 minutes that I had to join the IFM Management Program. It would complete my Business School studies and upgrade my profile with more specificities.  

I presented my candidature the same year and started IFM right after the summer. I will always remember my first impressions sitting in the amphitheater rue Jean Goujon, surrounded by exciting and original profiles, and listening to Pierre Bergé who told us as a welcome message :”My only advice to you is to always follow your dreams, no matter what”. Thank you, I shall never forget it !  

Among the different contributions of IFM and its community you could be thankful for, which one really mattered to you the most ?

IFM opened many new horizons for me. It gave me the assurance to follow my thirst for creation, beauty, art and craftmanship and also develop my aspiration for independence and entrepreneurship. It gave me the privilege to become myself, thrive in total connection with my dreams,break the rule sand think outside of the box.

Meeting so many interesting student profiles with different opinions, culture and diverse approaches on things has been very inspiring. Also having the chance to encounter strong personalities from different sectors covering topics such as fashion business, design, textile, brand identity and product development, merchandising, manufacturing, management, human resources… and last but not least Art in every aspect – history, culture and drawing courses… A total dream come true !

I also would like to underline the outstanding human dimension at IFM. Students felt part of a family, a community sharing the same dream. Each professor or speaker was making a contribution to a common venture : our personal and professional achievement. Some of them even became friends.   

IFM helped me find the right professional path and opened doors. My career started at L’Oréal and when I joined, the Human Resources Manager told me that he wouldn’t have considered my CV without IFM in it. 

I spent 15 years at L’Oréal and during all this time, my connections with IFM kept active and alive and I am super grateful for that. 

When you decided to move to New York, it seems that you went even further in moving toward more creative jobs, could you tell us more about this transition?

I wanted to pursue a growing passion of mine which was my painting, in particular Color Fields and Monochromes. I started showing my work and got the chance to meet a gallerist in New York who invited me over for a show. I got the opportunity to stay longer and meet many people who asked me to help them creatively as a consultant. New York became the perfect platform for my consulting work in fragrance, beauty and fashion. Consulting enabled me to paint on the side and work on new upcoming shows.

In 2014 I had an epiphany. I felt that it was time for me to go one step further into the act of creation and came up with my own collection of perfumes called ÉLISIRE, inspired by my love for colors and scents. The adventure began officially at Bergdorf Goodman end of 2015, and at Colette in Paris in 2017.   

In the current challenging times we are living, what were the incidences for you personally and what did you change to adapt to this new situation ?

When the crisis began, everything went fast, I had to make the choice whether I wanted to be confined all by myself in New York City or with my family in France... They were already confined in the countryside of Provence, the choice was obviously easy !   

Passed the emotion of my sudden relocation, like all of us I had no choice but to embrace the unknown and search for newness, accept the slower pace of the countryside, exacerbated by the strict measures of confinement. Living the slow life and social distancing, contemplating and meditating became my everyday, which in a certain way, was for the better.

Thanks to internet and social media, I got closer to people, made new friends and together, we built solidarity, redefined rules and ways of proceeding. I discovered the endless possibilities of livestreaming which I had never done before : I started doing live chats, with the perfumers that helped me create Élisire, with my agent in New York, and also experimenting livestream shopping sessions, in particular with ShopShop, a digital marketplace that connects retailers and brands directly with cross-borders shoppers.

This crisis made me realize that the future is now, thanks to the digital world. Shopping is becoming more and more virtual, instant purchasing is the new game, wherever you are, whatever you do, whenever you want. As a perfume brand, I am the curator that constantly needs to create positive emotions. It’s a totally new approach that I am still trying to adjust too, as my references belong to the world before I’m afraid and I am still trying to catch up…  

What do you think will be the long term impact of this crisis on the luxury sector ?

Physical retail has been severely impacted as we can hear everyday on the news, and I fear that this is only the beginning. Consumers have become more demanding and critical about sustainability and the impact on our planet.   

We therefore need to explore new routes, reinvent retail by developing B to C approaches, when possible, create content “studios”... Find new ways of “romancing” our goods with valuable contents that create positive emotions and interactions. Reconsider the number of articles, think less and better, probably more essential, ethical, sustainable and authentic. In that sense, rethink our brand values.

Working from home, wearing a mask when stepping out, washing hands, keeping a social distance with others, all these parameters will for sure change our needs.

This crisis has also inspired me to go back to the sources. Think more local, explore the neighborhood and its numerous possibilities, discover local makers, potential suppliers and manufacturers, farmers and distillers.

Let’s see where this will lead us… It’s definitely a challenging moment for the planet from a sanitary and economic standpoint, but it can also be experimented as an exciting moment for inventing a better world and future for our successors.   

ow we can collaborate on designing new perspectives for beauty and fragrance that will meet people’s needs and aspirations as well as the market evolution.

5/ What is your secret to remain positive and optimistic ?

Listen to music, inhale perfume and essential oils, explore and make art, observe the endless changes of nature through the season, eat tasty and healthy food, drink clear water and good wines!… and to keep going, do a bit of physical activity such as biking which, in Provence, is I believe the best way to discover the world outside !

You can follow Franck Salzwedel  on Instagram : elisire_parfums

Marie Laurence de Chaunac & the  IFM ALUMNI USA Team