Mr Frédéric Malle has a distinctive nose. It’s not unusual to look at, but he has an extremely sensitive sense of smell – an olfactory attribute that runs in the family. His grandfather, Mr Serge Heftler-Louiche, founded Parfums Christian Dior, and his mother, as art director of the fashion house’s perfumery, played a hand in the creation of Dior's legendary men’s fragrance, Eau Sauvage.

Having wrinkled his nostrils at the modern world of mass-produced and celebrity-endorsed fragrances, Mr Malle sniffed out a different path. From its inception in 2000, his company Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle has been dedicated to working with the world’s best perfumers, offering them financial and creative freedom to construct their fragrances.

Mr Malle, 53, lives overlooking Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with his wife, Marie, and Elvis, their pet Vizsla. Their four children having left home, the apartment feels spacious and is inventively decorated with modern and contemporary art and furniture, such as a Mr Frank Gehry stool and Mr Anthony Caro bench, alongside much older, more traditional pieces.

“I love the light in this apartment and I like that I don't have anything in front of me except for greenery. I remember many years ago visiting a friend who lived by Central Park and thinking to myself, ‘If I ever move to New York, I want that view.’ I studied History of Art at NYU, and we’re close to many museums here. But to me, Central Park is a piece of contemporary art. This green rectangle in the middle of the city is the epitome of New York. Even in such a busy city, it’s like going home to the country every night.

“My interior design style is eclectic, and it’s always a work in progress. I like to put things together two by two and then grow the equation. You can put a Habitat chair with a very beautiful painting – if the Habitat chair is well designed, it will work with the painting. It’s like how Loulou de la Falaise [Mr Yves Saint Laurent’s muse] would dress. She was famous for wearing jeans with couture or costume jewellery with diamonds. If you have a good eye, it works.

“Are there parallels between creating an interior design aesthetic and creating a fragrance? In the mixing, yes. In the freedom, yes. In the quality of ingredients, absolutely.

“Interior design is primarily about the look and feel of a space, but scent is also important. Memorable homes have a distinctive smell. It doesn’t have to be a perfume, it can be a bouquet of flowers or some good home cooking. What I don’t like is very overpowering scents. You don’t want your house to smell like a taxi cab. You want to be able to breathe in life.

“Perfume is a silent language that people speak but don’t understand. People will be drawn naturally to fragrances that suit them. When you buy a fragrance, you buy something which is an extension or magnifier of yourself. Each type of fragrance corresponds to a type of character and there’s an absolute connection between how you want to present yourself and the fragrance that you are wearing. For example, some people like to feel clean and these people usually smell of fresh fragrances. On the other extreme, you have people who want to seduce with a smell of lust. They want to say, ‘When I'm in bed, this is what it smells of.’ This is why you need to think carefully about the person’s character when buying a fragrance as a gift. The name of the fragrance can often provide an indication. You wouldn’t give something such as Musc Ravageur – which brags ‘I’m sexy’ – to the Virgin Mary.

“There’s no hard and fast rule about signature scents. I have loved people in my life who have smelled the same for 50 years because it’s them. It’s like a uniform. My uncle, Jean d’Ormesson, who was a famous writer in France, only ever wore the same tie all his life. He probably had 30 of them all the same. Whereas I have 100 different ties, which I wear according to my mood, the occasion, the season. And it’s the same with fragrance. I probably have six or seven to choose from. In the summer I tend to wear a fragrance of mine called Géranium pour Monsieur and Vetiver Extraordinaire in the winter.

“But actually I often don’t wear any fragrance at all and I use only unscented grooming products. This is because I smell fragrance every day and I’m always wary that if I was to wear a fragrance it would interfere with my ability to create fragrances with the world’s best perfumers.

“Fragrance is like home decor. If you have little money but lots of talent, you can make a very pretty room; conversely, even with limitless means, you will never make a great fragrance without a great artist attached to it.”