Fragrance house

Lucien Lelong

Lucien Lelong took over his parents’ Paris couture business in 1918 and opened a couture house under his own name in 1919. The business later developed beyond couture to include ready-to-wear and fragrance, with Parfums Lucien Lelong established in 1924. Lelong treated perfume as part of a woman’s personal style, giving bottles and packaging elaborate, fashion-related forms. Indiscret, launched in 1935, is identified as perhaps his most famous perfume. The couture house closed in the late 1940s, but the fragrance business continued afterward. Ownership of that business changed in 1953, when Coty acquired a controlling interest, and again in 1960, when Lucien Lelong was sold to Mary Chess. Today, the public-facing brand presents itself as Parfums Lucien Lelong, a fragrance house whose heritage dates from 1924.