The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Twentie's takes its name from the 1920s, those outlandish nights when women dressed for liberation and the air carried exotic warmth from the Orient. Place des Lices translated that era into a 1999 composition under the hand of Marie Duchêne, pulling together patchouli, rose, vetiver, pepper, caraway, white honey and amber into one portrait of sensual excess. The juice reads like a small, deliberate act of nostalgia: nothing accidental, nothing overworked, just a clear channel between a decade and a wrist. The opening shimmer of spice and herb gives way quickly to a dense, resinous body, the kind of warmth that suggests a crowded room, low lighting, and the particular kind of laughter that only happens after dark.
What makes this composition unusual is the way it balances two languages at once. The spice trio of pepper, caraway, and vetiver gives the heart a dry, almost savory edge. There's nothing gourmand here, no syrupy sweetness, no powdery softness, just a clean, herbaceous bite that keeps the florals honest and stops the rose from collapsing into anything decorative. Then white honey arrives, not as a confection but as a warmth that rounds the edges without flattening them, the way a single chord can settle an entire arrangement.
The evolution
The opening is brisk and almost sharp, caraway and pepper pushing forward with a green, slightly bitter edge that reads more aromatic than sweet. Within the first fifteen minutes the rose begins to surface, dark and a little bruised, threaded through the spice rather than sitting on top of it. Patchouli enters quietly here, grounding the florals and giving them weight, the kind of base note that doesn't announce itself so much as make everything above it feel more present. The honey doesn't appear immediately; it builds in the background, and by the two-hour mark it's fully arrived, turning the composition warmer and more ambered, the way a room changes temperature once enough people have filled it. The drydown settles into vetiver and amber, with white honey and amber carrying the longest tail, a skin-close warmth that lasts well into the evening.
Cultural impact
Twentie's by Place des Lices reads as a small, deliberate bridge between historical reference and modern niche perfumery, pulling from the visual vocabulary of the 1920s without ever sliding into literal costuming. The fragrance borrows the decade's appetite for excess and channels it through a contemporary structure: patchouli and amber where the era might have leaned on heavier orientals, white honey where a sweeter gourmand might have taken over, and a confident, almost architectural use of rose that feels more editorial than decorative.
The House
Place des LicesPlace des Lices creates fragrances that echo the light of the French Riviera. Based in Grasse, the historic perfume capital, the house draws on Provençal gardens, sun‑kissed beaches and the rhythm of coastal towns. Its catalogue includes scents launched between 1999 and 2023, such as Matin d’Ete, Vanille Crème and Passion Figuier. Each bottle offers a concise portrait of a place, a season or a memory, inviting wearers to carry a fragment of the Riviera on their skin.
The Creator
Marie DuchêneMarie’s style leans toward naturalism, favoring botanical absolutes, fine woods, and delicate florals. She often begins with a single heart‑note—lavender, rose, or jasmine—then builds a supporting structure of citrus top notes and soft musks.
