Fragrance house

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle is an art-linked fragrance brand whose public identity is inseparable from the colorful sculptural forms, mosaics, mirrors, symbolic imagery, and female figures known as the Nanas in its namesake artist’s work. Saint Phalle created and launched the eponymous fragrance in 1982 with the Jacqueline Cochran Company. Conceived as an artist-designed object, it featured a sculptural vial, including a blue-and-gold design topped with intertwined snakes. Its proceeds were used to finance the Tarot Garden, which began in 1978 at Garavicchio in Tuscany, developed over approximately twenty years, and opened to the public in 1998. In 1987, Sanofi acquired Jacqueline Cochran and La Prairie units from American Cyanamid, changing the corporate ownership surrounding the fragrance’s original company. After Saint Phalle’s death in 2002, the Niki Charitable Art Foundation was established to promote and protect her artistic legacy. The 1982 perfume is the brand’s defining fragrance example, connecting Saint Phalle’s art practice, bottle design, and the financing of the Tarot Garden.