Fragrance house

Jacomo

Jacomo began in New York in 1961, when American leather craftsman James Kaplan and French pianist Gérard Courtin started the collaboration that created the name, inspired in part by their shared admiration for the Museum of Modern Art. Courtin moved to Grasse in 1965 to develop Jacomo’s fragrance expertise and established an atelier at 45 Avenue George V in Paris in 1970, after which it became Jacomo Paris. The house started with leather goods, then its perfumery division grew to surpass that activity. Its early identity joined New York art inspiration with French perfumery, distinctive scents and unconventional bottles; its earliest fragrances drew inspiration from MoMA sculptures. In 1987, Jacomo extended this fragrance-led creative philosophy into ready-to-wear. Eau Cendrée, launched in 1970, was its first men’s fragrance and an early international success. Silences, launched in 1978, became a defining fragrance for the house. In 2024, J de Jacomo was presented as a return for the house and a new signature intended to connect its heritage with modernity.