Fragrance house

Claude Montana

Claude Montana founded his namesake fashion company in 1979, establishing a design language built around architectural cuts, exaggerated shoulders, narrow waists, leather, cashmere, silk, and strong solid colors. The brand expanded into menswear with its first Montana Homme collection in 1981. In 1990, Montana became head of haute couture at Lanvin, where his collections won the Golden Thimble in 1991 and 1992. The company entered receivership or bankruptcy proceedings in 1997; during the transition that followed, an investment group acquired the business and rights to the Montana name, and businessman Jean-Jacques Layani bought the house in 2000, when it was renamed Montana Création. The label returned to public view in 2019 through a 40th-anniversary reissue of 11 emblematic models created with Byronesque and Farfetch. Claude Montana died in Paris on 23 February 2024, aged 76. In fragrance, Parfum de Peau is the scent most directly identified with the Montana name: its original composition dates to 1986, and it is classified as a floral chypre.