FloralFragonard
Fragonard was founded in Grasse in 1926 by Eugène Fuchs, a notary from the Loire who became a perfumer, who bought two Grasse perfumeries and gave them the name of the painter born in the city. The house has never left the family: the founder's great-granddaughters, Françoise and Agnès Costa, run it today.
Fragonard perfumes
Floral
CitrusA notary, two perfumeries, a painter
Eugène Fuchs left Saint-Chamond and his notary practice after the First World War to settle in the Grasse region. In 1926 he bought two local perfumeries, Cresp-Martinenq and Muraour, and founded the Parfumerie Fragonard at 20 boulevard, which still bears that name.
The name pays tribute to Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a painter born in Grasse in 1732 and who died in 1806, son of the Grasse glove-maker perfumer François Fragonard. The choice immediately linked the house to the city that had welcomed the founder and to the arts of the 18th century.
The factory tour as a model
The idea that made the house was not olfactory but commercial: selling directly to travelers discovering the Riviera of the Roaring Twenties, by opening the workshops to them. The free guided tour of the factory has accompanied sales for more than ninety years.
Eugène Fuchs handed over the reins in 1929 to his son Georges and his son-in-law François Costa, the former handling foreign markets, the latter Grasse. During the Second World War, an alliance with Elizabeth Arden gave rise to an American subsidiary, Continental Perfumers.
The museums and the fourth generation
Eugène Fuchs began in 1947 to gather objects related to perfume and displayed them in the factory. Jean-François Costa, the third generation, turned them into real collections and opened the perfume museums of Grasse and Paris, which remain free to enter.
Françoise and Agnès Costa, his daughters and the founder's great-granddaughters, run the house, which has three production sites. The heritage, the factory and the shop are here housed in the same place, which remains rare in perfumery.