Fragrance house

Espirit

Esprit was founded in California in 1968 by Susie and Doug Tompkins, who initially sold dresses from the back of their car; by 1971, the business had seven product lines. The founders first operated under the name Esprit de Corp before adopting Esprit, and John Casado created the brand’s distinctive logo in 1979. Its public creative identity was shaped by Oliviero Toscani’s photography and campaigns featuring employees and other non-models rather than conventional fashion models. After the Tompkinses divorced, Susie Tompkins and investors bought Doug’s half in 1990, and she resumed a design leadership role. Esprit’s Asian operations were listed in Hong Kong in 1993, and the Hong Kong-listed company acquired its European operations and other international interests in 1997. In 2023, Esprit consolidated several labels into a single Esprit label and drew on 1980s and 1990s styles in archive-inspired collections. During 2024 insolvency proceedings, European fashion-business intellectual-property rights and related digital assets transferred to fasbra SE, a wholly owned Deichmann subsidiary, while Esprit Holdings retained the Esprit trademarks for the rest of the world. Its 2024 report described a shift toward an asset-light, licensing-focused model. Esprit’s first documented fragrance line, Scents and Senses, launched with Coty in 2001 as a color- and mood-linked collection.