Courrèges

Courrèges or the fragrance of the committed and sensual woman

André Courrèges founded his haute couture house in 1961, simply named Courrèges, after having worked in the preceding years for the no less famous Balenciaga. Despite the fact that André Courrèges was not trained as a couturier (he was a civil engineer), he would very quickly revolutionize the fashion world by inventing a futuristic style, boldly out of step with the usual conventions of haute couture.

His French take on Mary Quant's miniskirt in 1965, along with his white patent leather boots and pinafore dresses, would turn the house of Courrèges into a veritable temple of yé-yé fashion and its stars. At the height of his inimitable style, Courrèges decided to venture into perfumery by creating a first fragrance, powerful and ultra-feminine, “Empreinte”, in tribute to the first steps on the moon and to the house's futuristic values.

“Empreinte”, released in 1971, represents the Courrèges style in every form: from the sophisticated graphic design of the bottle and its spherical cap to the warm, sensual chypre juice punctuated by an overdose of patchouli, “Empreinte” aims to leave the sillage of the Courrèges woman in history. Now a cult classic, “Empreinte” was in fact reissued as the Courrèges spirit was revived in 2012. A treasure with amber and gold reflections. An inimitable fragrance, attributed to Courrèges.

Courrèges: A precious “Empreinte” for great timeless fragrances

“Empreinte”, Courrèges's very first fragrance, opened a royal path for the haute couture house into the world of perfumery. Thus in 1977, Courrèges would attempt to repeat its success by offering this time a rather sporty and fresh fragrance, “Eau de Courrèges”, while still not straying from the geometric graphic shapes and structures of the bottle that had made the brand popular.

“Eau de Courrèges”, a lovely floral citrus, offers its vision of a woman “fresh and fragrant as the open air” while creating a fragrance that could also suit men. Once again, the house of Courrèges secured an enormous success, to such an extent that “Eau de Courrèges” would later itself become a cult fragrance, reissued like “Empreinte” in 2012, as would the legendary 1980s fragrance “Courrèges in Blue”.

Indeed, in 1983 Courrèges introduced a new fragrance, “Courrèges in Blue”, meant as a tribute to “the absolute purity of blue” and to “an ideal of feminine purity”. “Courrèges in Blue”, with its floral and aldehydic notes as well as its woody sillage, would move and touch the hearts of working women of the 1980s, elevating it too to the rank of cult fragrances.

Despite the many enormous successes of the house of Courrèges, whether in haute couture or in perfumery, it would nonetheless go through a wave of decline in the 1990s, and André Courrèges presented his final show in 2002. It would take until 2011 for two advertising professionals to fully revive the Courrèges spirit and bring it back to success. After the 2012 reissue of the brand's three flagship fragrances (“Empreinte”, “Eau de Courrèges” and “Courrèges In Blue”), Courrèges would release in 2015 a new, original and striking fragrance faithful to its founder's spirit: “La Fille de l'air”. It was once again a success...