Jean Couturier

“Coriandre” or the meeting between a talented creator and a masterful nose

What happens when a former marketing director of Balmain, at the head of Yves Saint-Laurent perfumes, meets a bold and demanding nose from Grasse? They fall in love, of course, but they also create their perfume house together, the Couturier house.

Jean Couturier had worked since the 60s in fine perfumery within the Yves-Saint-Laurent house. Bold and daring, he was behind the creation of great fragrances such as “Y” and “Rive Gauche”. As for Jacqueline Keip, she had the chance to discover the world of perfumery thanks to her father, an accountant working at the Roure perfumery school in Grasse, under the direction of Bertrand Dupont, with whom she completed an internship.

Strengthened by her training, Jacqueline Keip returned to Paris with solid foundations that allowed her to take part in composing, among others, the Jacques Fath perfumes. When the two young talents met, it was love at first sight, and in 1972 their shared passion led them to create the Couturier house. Jean Couturier handled management and marketing, while Jacqueline Couturier handled the creation of innovative and unique perfumes.

Couturier perfumes standing the test of time

“Coriandre”, released in 1973, is the very first perfume created by the Couturier house. Jacqueline Couturier wanted to pay tribute to her childhood memories, particularly to the scents of Schiaparelli’s “Shocking”. With Coriandre she wanted to recapture the olfactory emotions of her youth, the subtle and delicate perfume of her mother [“Shocking”] and the captivating fragrances of the Grasse countryside, Jacqueline Couturier stated at the time. The delicate chypre-floral would only be more beautiful for it, marking an undeniable success for the young house, so much so that it was reissued in 2013.

Afterward, the Couturier couple ventured into new masculine fragrances such as “Monsieur Couturier” in 1976 and “12” in 1979, a fine aromatic fougère, “the men’s perfume that women love”. Then in 1983 Couturier created again for women with “Keora”, a beautiful powdery floral oriental, where “feeling has never made one feel so much”, as its advertising of the time liked to put it.

Yet in the mid-80s, the Couturier house seemed to fade despite fine bursts of flanker fragrances built around its flagship perfume “Coriandre”, with “Coriandre Eau de Toilette” in 1993 and then “Eau de Coriandre de Jean Couturier” in 1996. In 2000, the house's fragrance creations went relatively unnoticed, even as “Coriandre” remained, still and always, one of the best-selling perfumes in fine perfumery. In 2013, the Couturier house and “Coriandre” treated themselves to a fountain of youth with a modern reissue of the best-seller. In 2014, “Paris baroque”, a floral oriental, was added to the house's fragrance creations, while also celebrating the lovely “Un Jardin à Paris”, released in 2009.