“I’ve lived the civil war in Lebanon with everything that it brings in terms of being scared, terrorised, traumatised, but also in terms of building resilience, that in the face of darkness, you can be sunshine,” explains Marc Chaya, co-founder and president of perfume house Maison Francis Kurkdjian. “In the face of atrocity, you can build things that are harmonious and beautiful.”
Years after the war and working at Ernst & Young in Paris, feeling restless, he had a chance encounter with a man named Francis Kurkdjian at a dinner party. He had no idea what it meant when Kurkdjian explained he was a perfumer. “Like most customers, no one knows what a perfumer is. He told me he created Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. My mum gave me that perfume when I was 18.”
When he discovered Kurkdjian also created scents such as Armani Mania, which he owned, it was a revelation. But he couldn’t help but wonder why this man’s name wasn’t known to him, even though he wore the product of his work.
Perfumers, Kurkdjian explained, were hidden away, working to briefs with little knowledge of the wider picture. Importantly, they were unable to put their name on their work. Chaya was astounded. “What is this injustice?” he says. “How come anyone can take your belongings and say that they created it? How is this possible?”
He soon discovered the reason – the fragrance industry itself has taught customers that perfumers were little more than workers in a lab. The respect once afforded to the profession and its practitioners completely vanished. “Guerlain was a great perfumer and Jean-Louis Fargeon was Marie Antoinette’s perfumer for a reason. But perfume got killed by fashion because fashion houses, who could not sell their couture to the masses, were looking for ways to take that aura and give it to a maximum number of people by using fragrance as a fashion accessory,” explains Chaya.
“I knew that we could change dramatically the way we interact with scent, the way we talk about it. The creative in me was like, ‘Oh my God, if this guy is such a powerful creator, what would happen if he could express his vision freely?’” The answer came in 2008, when the pair launched Maison Francis Kurkdjian. The creator’s name is now front and centre “to re-establish the legitimacy of the perfumer,” Chaya explains.
Since then, the house has created much-lauded scents. The fragrances include the genre-shifting Baccarat Rouge 540. Created in 2015 initially to mark the 250th anniversary of the crystal house Baccarat, it is named after the process of heating gold to 540 degrees until it turns red. As the jewel in the company’s crown, Chaya believes its enduring popularity is down to its sublime beauty. “I took a taxi and the driver stopped and said ‘what are you wearing? It’s the most beautiful scent that I have ever smelt.’”
For Chaya, this is the only kind of validation that matters. He explains how it went on to become a bestselling scent without marketing, without celebrity endorsement, without anything but “the genius of creativity”. The skill of perfumers is widely misunderstood, he explains. “Perfume is here to help you express the uniqueness and diversity of your personality. It’s an impulse of life,” he says.
For example, take the rich vanilla amber, oud and absolute of Damascena rose that help create the drama of Oud Satin Mood or the Grandiflorum jasmine, bitter almond, ambergris and hint of fire that give Baccarat Rouge its undeniably sensual edge. “We’re not the same person every day, and fragrance is this invisible accessory that can work with you,” explains Chaya.
With every scent a true labour of love, Chaya is protective of Kurkdjian’s time, shielding him from an industry that needs constant newness to survive. Part of this destructive pattern is what he calls “launch fever”. “We were in Germany at a press launch talking about a new fragrance, 724, and one editor raised her hand and said, ‘What’s coming next?’ How toxic is that? No one wants to live today. Everyone is looking at tomorrow,” he laments.
Despite trying to work to a relentless schedule, Chaya finally pushed back, halting new releases. “We were exhausted. We decided with Francis to stop. Because he is not a machine.”
Freed from the endless cycle of promoting only new products, the team was able to focus on existing scents that had been lost in the melee. Warned that stopping new releases would kill the company, instead “we took 25 per cent growth introducing smells that were part of the portfolio to customers who did not know about them. Grand Soir has been there for nine years and it’s still growing 140 per cent,” reveals Chaya.
The next fight he has in his sights is the thorny matter of the lack of intellectual property rights across perfumery. “It’s horrific that today a perfumer is unable to protect their creation, and why you have the phenomenon of dupes. I’m talking about beyond theft,” Chaya tells me. “It is the fundamental right of a category of creators that is being taken away from them.”
Despite such challenges, Chaya’s admiration for his co-founder’s talent remains unwavering. “My job is to make sure that there’s the right ecosystem around Francis for him to be free.
“He is one of the greatest, I think, perfumers of his generation, and has changed the way we look at the fragrance world.”
Biography
Favourite Meal: Chicken Caesar salad
Hobbies: Travelling, going to the gym
Inspiration: Father, who was a captain in the UAE army
Favourite read: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Favourite film: The Founder, about the establishment of McDonald's
FIXTURES
All games 6pm UAE on Sunday:
Arsenal v Watford
Burnley v Brighton
Chelsea v Wolves
Crystal Palace v Tottenham
Everton v Bournemouth
Leicester v Man United
Man City v Norwich
Newcastle v Liverpool
Southampton v Sheffield United
West Ham v Aston Villa
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
MATCH INFO
Everton 0
Manchester City 2 (Laporte 45 2', Jesus 90 7')
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EElmawkaa%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ebrahem%20Anwar%2C%20Mahmoud%20Habib%20and%20Mohamed%20Thabet%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PropTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24400%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E500%20Startups%2C%20Flat6Labs%20and%20angel%20investors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2012%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
AL%20BOOM
%3Cp%20style%3D%22text-align%3Ajustify%3B%22%3E%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3BDirector%3AAssad%20Al%20Waslati%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%20style%3D%22text-align%3Ajustify%3B%22%3E%0DStarring%3A%20Omar%20Al%20Mulla%2C%20Badr%20Hakami%20and%20Rehab%20Al%20Attar%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EStreaming%20on%3A%20ADtv%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Everton 2 (Tosun 9', Doucoure 93')
Rotherham United 1 (Olosunde 56')
Man of the Match Olosunde (Rotherham)
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
ELECTION%20RESULTS
%3Cp%3EMacron%E2%80%99s%20Ensemble%20group%20won%20245%20seats.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20second-largest%20group%20in%20parliament%20is%20Nupes%2C%20a%20leftist%20coalition%20led%20by%20Jean-Luc%20Melenchon%2C%20which%20gets%20131%20lawmakers.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20far-right%20National%20Rally%20fared%20much%20better%20than%20expected%20with%2089%20seats.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20centre-right%20Republicans%20and%20their%20allies%20took%2061.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RACE CARD
4pm Al Bastakiya – Listed (TB) $150,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
4.35pm Dubai City Of Gold – Group 2 (TB) $228,000 (Turf) 2,410m
5.10pm Mahab Al Shimaal – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,200m
5.45pm Burj Nahaar – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,600m
6.20pm Jebel Hatta – Group 1 (TB) $260,000 (T) 1,800m
6.55pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 1 (TB) $390,000 (D) 2,000m
7.30pm Nad Al Sheba – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (T) 1,200m
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More on animal trafficking
More from Aya Iskandarani
Other simple ideas for sushi rice dishes
Cheat’s nigiri
This is easier to make than sushi rolls. With damp hands, form the cooled rice into small tablet shapes. Place slices of fresh, raw salmon, mackerel or trout (or smoked salmon) lightly touched with wasabi, then press, wasabi side-down, onto the rice. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Easy omurice
This fusion dish combines Asian fried rice with a western omelette. To make, fry cooked and cooled sushi rice with chopped vegetables such as carrot and onion and lashings of sweet-tangy ketchup, then wrap in a soft egg omelette.
Deconstructed sushi salad platter
This makes a great, fuss-free sharing meal. Arrange sushi rice on a platter or board, then fill the space with all your favourite sushi ingredients (edamame beans, cooked prawns or tuna, tempura veggies, pickled ginger and chilli tofu), with a dressing or dipping sauce on the side.
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
