Serge Lutens was born on 14 March 1942 in Lille, France. His professional path began in beauty and image-making: from 1968, he worked with Christian Dior on makeup-line development, then joined Shiseido in 1980 to develop its visual identity and global image. In 1992, Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido opened in Paris, where Lutens began creating perfumes more consistently. The Serge Lutens fragrance brand launched in 2000 as Parfums Beauté Serge Lutens with support from the Shiseido Group and was later renamed Serge Lutens. In December 2015, Shiseido announced that it had signed to purchase the Serge Lutens trademark, with Lutens continuing to direct the brand’s spirit and style. His creative identity draws on photography, filmmaking, hair, makeup, fashion, and art direction, while his approach to perfume places scent within a story. Marrakech has been a lasting source of the brand’s olfactory and narrative identity. Féminité du Bois was described as revolutionary in its fragrance context and influential in later cedar-centered perfumery; Ambre Sultan was identified as the range’s best seller in 2000. Lutens received the FiFi Award for Best Original Concept from 2001 through 2004 and created the Olfactory Maze installation for Lille 2004.
