Fragrance house

The Motley

The Motley was founded in 2010 by Los Angeles-raised siblings Matthew and Madison Ruggieri, beginning as an online men’s-grooming retailer run from their San Fernando Valley home. Its early online boutique brought together skincare, hair care, shaving, and grooming advice. In 2013, actor and musician Darren Criss became an investor and third partner, advising on grooming content and product development. That year, The Motley introduced Atlas, its debut fragrance, developed with Los Angeles perfumer Jacqueline Steele of Goest Perfumes. The brand marked its fifth anniversary in 2015 with Palo Santo, an anniversary fragrance. Today, The Motley is presented as a Los Angeles-made fragrance label within a broader family of brands, offering handcrafted fragrance blends for home and body inspired by travel. Its approach is small-batch and hands-on, with scents intended to adapt to the wearer’s character rather than dominate it. Atlas is the clearest documented example of its early fragrance identity: the founders intended it to define The Motley.