Celestial Voyage: Unparalleled Fragrance and Beautiful Light

Have you ever walked through the dark and found yourself chasing a glimmer, not out of fear, but in quiet hope that something luminous might be waiting at the end? Visitors stepped into such a metaphor at this year’s Milan Design Week. Mission Aldebaran, the sensory installation by French couturier Marc-Antoine Barrois, wasn’t merely an exhibition. It was a celestial meditation on resilience. The quiet pull of light. The grounding honesty of nature-born form. Find out more about this new perfume from this master maker in Celestial Voyage: Unparalleled Fragrance and Beautiful Light.

Image Samantha Inman @rememberingtobreathe.

Named after Aldebaran, the brilliant red giant star that has long served as a cosmic compass, this installation unfolded in reverent stages. In collaboration with designer Antoine Bouillot, Marc Antoine Barrois crafted a space, at Milan Design Week, that invited observation and participation. At the centre were sculptural seating pieces resembling marble boulders, resting on a wooden platform and a white globe-like light.

But these weren’t found objects; these seats were artfully engineered forms, exquisitely enlarged versions of pebbles the pair had gathered from the windswept beaches of Belle-Île, where Barrois resides. Their surfaces were high-definition scanned, each curve and crevice preserved in digital detail before being carved in Italian marble.

The experience began in darkness. Visitors entered a mirrored cube at the Salone dei Tessuti, where light was absent and silence became palpable. Thick ropes brushed their arms like a forest of quiet choices. One navigated not by sight, but by trust. And then, light. At the journey’s centre, a luminous orb glowed over a field of paper tuberose, each flower imbued with the scent of stars.

The tuberose, a flower that blooms most potently at night, became a symbolic anchor for the installation. Its intense nighttime fragrance, which evolved to attract nocturnal pollinators like moths, was not merely perfume but presence. Its white petals, easily seen under moonlight, echoed the role of Aldebaran above: a beacon in the darkness. Together, flower and star guided the creation of a scent and a space honouring the mystery of nighttime blooming. 

Scattered through the field were the sculptural seats, quiet forms that didn’t impose but invited stillness. Their smoothed shapes, drawn from the raw language of nature, seemed worn by tide and time. You could sit. You could listen. 

Sound, subtle and shifting, threaded through the space. An original score by Thomas Roussel gently lifted and receded, like breath. Meanwhile, conversations took root in the dark. Scientific researcher Aurélie Jean encouraged visitors to think of optimism as a logical framework, while astrophysicist Anthony Salsi synced the installation’s lighting and temperature to the real-time state of Aldebaran, grounding the metaphor in science. 

Correspondingly, the journey had a fragrance, Aldebaran, a limited-edition perfume created by Barrois with perfumer Quentin Bisch. Anchored in the heady elegance of tuberose, known as the flower of the night, it is bold yet soft, luminous yet grounded. Just 500 bottles exist, a rare comet’s pass in a world of mass production. But this scent was never the main event; it was the echo of the experience, the part you carried with you.  

Alongside Tuberose, the fragrance has notes of Paprika, Mate and Tonka Beans. This olfactory experience is like a journey from darkness to light.

Tuberose, a busty, blousey scent, can be in ‘bad hands’ a little too much, but here guided but two shining souls, the true beauty and elegance of the flower is expressed, magical, ethereal and rich.

Ultimately, Mission Aldebaran was never about spectacle. It was about trust, in nature, in slowness, in the power of small, luminous things to guide us through shadow. It was an invitation to step forward, even in the dark, toward the light we hope is there. 

If you enjoyed reading Celestial Voyage: Unparalleled Fragrance and Beautiful Light, then why not read For the Love of Roses, Grandma’s Favourites

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