Eau de Courrèges: A fragrance like a gust of freedom. If Empreinte left an indelible scented trace on those who loved Courrèges and many others, Eau de Courrèges, born amid the full swing of the peace and love movement, left no one indifferent.
The Courrèges style is timeless, and its perfumery is just as much so, thanks in particular to the talents of Robert Gonnon, who managed to deliver two of Courrèges’ greatest bestsellers in the 1970s: Empreinte and Eau de Courrèges. Where Empreinte will leave the memory of a chypre strength, Eau de Courrèges, by contrast, is fresh, unisex and beautifully woody. Eau de Courrèges will moreover be one of the very first unisex fragrances of modern perfumery.
Eau de Courrèges, or the iconic house’s “imprint” of unisex freshness
In the 1960s, the Courrèges brand exploded both through its boldness in miniskirts and body-hugging dresses and through its very first fragrance, the delicious and intoxicating Empreinte. It is true that by choosing the perfumer who had already composed the famous O de Lancôme, the house had little chance of getting it wrong, and Empreinte marked the 1970s with its unique sillage, recognizable among all others.
Robert Gonnon, the remarkable and talented creator of Empreinte, would strike again in even bolder fashion by offering the Courrèges-loving public a unisex, airy fragrance, Eau de Courrèges. Well before the worldwide revolution of CK One, Robert Gonnon set out to create a juice of fresh, sparkling beauty suited to both women and men, a true feat of perfumery!
Thus Eau de Courrèges made an impression both through the beauty of its light and complex accords and through the very idea that a man and a woman could come together in a single fragrance, at a time when, let us recall, Courrèges women were still being criticized for the length of their skirts…
Independent and free, for women as for men, a lively and tonic character, according to Courrèges regarding Eau de Courrèges.
Fresh like “the open air”, perfumer Robert Gonnon crafts the unforgettable Eau de Courrèges
Eau de Courrèges was thus conceived as a juice that would boast both classic masculine notes and original floral feminine notes. Fitting perfectly with its era and the desires of the moment, Eau de Courrèges thus offered a sober and distinguished alternative to the unisex oriental fragrances of the time, such as Patchouli. It also expresses the famous “return to nature” essential to the hippies of the 1970s through intense, natural raw materials.
The top notes of Eau de Courrèges, composed of bergamot and a sparkling exotic lime, belong as much to the olfactory heritage of women as to that of men. At the heart, the union of unisex notes is official. Crushed mint and absinthe create rather virile aromatic power, while lily of the valley wraps everything in its floral and very feminine delicacy. The powerful and sensual woody depths of Eau de Courrèges will form its closest link with its brilliant predecessor Empreinte, a link that would later become the signature of the vast majority of Courrèges fragrances.
Fresh and scented like the open air, elegant and chic, the original alliance of citrus, crushed mint and absinthe, according to Courrèges regarding Eau de Courrèges.