First designer perfume

While popular lore cites Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel as the first fashion designer to release a signature scent in 1921, historians generally credit another French fashion designer with its innovation. An entire decade before Chanel launched Chanel No. 5, Paul Poiret opened his perfume and cosmetics company Les Parfumes de Rosine (or “The Perfumes of Rosine”) in 1911, debuting his first perfume Nuit Persane (or “Persian Night”) the same year.

Rose was the name of Poiret’s eldest daughter. The perfume’s name is a reflection of Poiret’s fascination with Orientalism, a fictive and romanticized conglomerate of Eastern, Arab cultures sweeping Europe at the time.

1911 was also the year Poiret opened the interior design firm Martine, named after his second daughter. By expanding his business to include interior design and perfume, Poiret effectively laid the blueprint for today’s fashion industry and the prevalent concept of “lifestyle” branding as employed by well-known brands from Ralph Lauren to Chanel. Les Parfumes de Rosine released forty different scents before closing, in 1929, along with Poiret’s fashion house.