The term “Chypre”, often due to linguistic imprecision (in Italian), confused with the term “powdery” (cipriato), but with a very different olfactory identity, still arouses much curiosity and many questions. Would you have ever associated it with the name of François Coty? Do you know what versatile personality hides behind this name?
François Coty, in realty Joseph Marie François Spoturno, was born in Ajaccio in 1874. In 1900 he moved to Paris where he met a pharmacist who created, produced and commercialised his own Cologne Water. Coty, became his friend and they both went to the perfumery school of Chiris, one of the most ancient and renowned in Grasse. After less than one year, Coty returned to Paris where he began to create and sell his own fragrances. As well as being one of the leading creators of the modern perfumery, he was a true forerunner of the times: he sensed the relevance of concepts such as marketing, packaging, advertising. In this area he began to collaborate with Lalique and Baccarat, and encased his fragrances in refined flacons, paying particular attention to the lines, materials, colours, because as he affirms, “a fragrance must attract the eye in the same way as the nose”.
His contemporary perfumers sell their creations only in their own boutiques, Coty decided to sell his fragrances in department stores. After a little initial scepticism he quickly obtained great commercial success. The concept of the “industrial perfumery” began in other words the fact of offering the same fragrance in the same packaging to different people. In 1918, Coty had his fragrances packaged in small bottles which became ideal gifts for American soldiers, going back home after the end of the First World War, to give to their wives or girlfriends.
A lover of art, he was a true and proper patron: he financed numerous exhibitions and initiatives such as the first Atlantic crossing. In order to celebrate his memory, every year the François Coty Association assigns a career award to a perfumer. Unfortunately his political ideals didn’t have the same success as his fragrances and they led him to ruin: when he died the major part of his possessions where sequestered in order to pay off creditors.
The
Coty Fragrances Society is still present in the fragrance market and has for some time developed an international dimension, developing famous brands around the world: Adidas, Calvin Klein, Chloè, Davidoff, Lancaster, just to cite a few.
One of François Coty’s creations has left an indelible impression in the world of the modern perfumery, so much as to become an
olfactive family: it is
Chypre, from 1917. At that time Cyprus was the preferred holiday destination of the upper classes. Coty wanted to create a fragrance which would olfactively evoke the atmosphere of this island where, so the legend tells, Venus, the archetype of female beauty, was born.
Since then, “chypre” fragrances have followed the evolution of women’s taste without losing their decisive and strong-willed personality: “Mitsouko” by Guerlain, “Trussardi Donna” classic, “La Perla” classic, “Aromatics Elisir” by Clinique among the most “classic”. “Narciso Rodriguez for Her” is one of the most famous exponents of the modern version, lighter with accents of fresh flowers and white musk, “Femme” by Rochas, Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel and “Yvresse” by YSL soften the rigour of the structure with fruity shades, “Miss Dior” refreshes it with green touches.
