Monsieur Couturier by Jean Couturier c1975

Monsieur Couturier by Jean Couturier: launched in 1975, in USA and Japan in 1976.  Monsieur Couturier, was a fragrance created by Mme. Jacqueline Couturier for her husband with the aid of perfumer Raymond Chaillan.

Jacqueline's family lived for a time in Grasse, France, famous for its expansive flower beds which are the key to the world's most fabulous fragrances. It was here that the famous perfumer Jean Carles, a family friend, offered her an opportunity to study the art of perfume compounding. Intending to earn money to go to medical school she said that "I leaped at the invitation." She apprenticed for ten years as a 'nose', her natural talent in distinguishing individual notes worked to her advantage. She then moved to Paris, where she ended up working for a large supplier of fragrance oils, all the while composing many internationally famous fragrances for big name designers that she did not publicly disclose.

 "I don't know why there are so few women 'noses,'" she said. "Of the great 'noses,' there are inly three women, perhaps 25 men. But more women are training. Still it takes more than training to be a great 'nose.' You can study and train to be a 'nose,' as you can study and tain to be a pianist. Genius lies not in technical skill but in the creative imagination either artist brings to a composition. You can hear a pianist who plays well and another who plays brilliantly. It is the same in formulating perfume. Some scents are pleasant, others great."

During this time she had met and married Jean Couturier, which she considered her perfect match. Jean switched from fashion to perfume and managed and marketed a number of famous name brand fragrances. "We decided to form our own company in 1972." Jean Couturier explained.  "Jacqueline had created many great fragrances but to launch one of her own she needed marketing expertise. That was my specialty. It was a good marriage of talents - her 'nose' and my business head." Parfums Couturer was launched with the introduction of Coriandre, an unusual clean, green fragrance made up of oakmoss, ylang ylang, patchouli, roses, jasmine and coriander leaf.

"Jacqueline originally created Monsieur Couturier for me. Not many men have their own custom perfumer," said Jean. "But when people asked me what scent I was wearing and where they could get it, I lost mt exclusivity because we added it to the line." He went on further saying, "She composed the fragrance to my order. As a child, I had dreamed of traveling to exotic places, so I wanted the element in the scents. I also wanted a touch of leather fragrance for, to me, fine leather means luxury. In perfume, the leather note comes from birch bark, which is what they once used in the tanning of leather. The fragrance also has exotic notes of sandalwood and cloves plus spicy and woodsy harmonies. It is masculine, light and fresh."

A s a new company, they had to compete with the already established brands as well as the emerging fashion designers who started to bring out their own signature scents. "For success," Jacqueline noted, "we had to have a perfume that was unique, that could not be compared to anything else. Coriandre is heady, amorous and warm, quite different from the light fragrances popular a few years ago."

Jacqueline advised her customers to forget the old adage of applying perfume only to the pulse points on the skin, and said that "It is better to spray perfume on the hair and to the lining of a dress. That way you get the true fragrance as it was composed." Applying perfume in this manner allows one to get what the French call "sillage," the subtle trail of fragrance left after someone walks past you.

To introduce his men's fragrance, Jean Couturier hosted a dinner party at Maxim's in Paris. In addition to the press and buyers, he invited every single person in the Paris phonebook with the name Jean Couturier. "It's quite a common name," said Jean Couturier, "but it was a difficult job because so many were listed under the initial J. We had to discard the Josephs and the Jacques. But in the end there were 40 of us. All of them came and had a fine time."

Fragrance Composition:

So what does it smell like? It is classified as a woody leather fragrance for men.

• Top notes: bergamot, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander
• Middle notes: clove, sandalwood, patchouli, cedar, vetiver, carnation
• Base notes: oakmoss, amber, labdanum, birch tar (leather), tobacco, styrax, musk

Bottles:

The packaging and bottle were designed by Pierre Dinand. 

Fate of the Fragrance:

Discontinued, sometime between 1980 and 1985.