Jean Patou – A Creator, Innovator and Perfume Magician

08/28/07 10:47:43

Jean Patou (1887-1936), a designer, creator and hedonist, was born in Normandy, France. The family business helped him reveal his talents as since 1907 he started working with his uncle in the furs business. In 1912 he moves to Paris and opens a small fashion-dressmaking atelier Maison Parry. In 1914 he sells his entire collection to an American buyer. The World War I disturbs his career, as he served as a military captain at the Dardanelle front in 1915.

After the war, in 1919, he reopens his boutique, this time under his own name. The collection attains success from the beginning. He was designing clothes for famous actresses, singers and high class ladies. He was known for his creations with the girdle on waist, and sports apparels. He popularized the sports knitted sweater, (cardigan) and coordinated waistcoat and put the accent to more comfortable and modern clothing.
In the early 1920s sports style gives a new dimension to fashion. Jean Patou was creating dresses and apparels for famous tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, for both in and out of the tennis-court.

At the tennis tournament in Wimbledon in 1921, Patou created a real sensation when he dressed Suzanne Lenglen in the first calf-length cotton frock, white stockings rolled to her knees and orange colored headband. He was known for his Cubism-style sweaters influenced by Cubism and Art Deco. He was also the first to preview his collection to the press and, also, he invented the designer label with pockets outlined with J and P.

For Jean Patou, 1925 was the most active year. He opens the Sports Corner where he presents the sportswear collections. The separate rooms in the Sports Corner were devoted to different sports like tennis, golf, skiing, fishing, and sports apparels was coordinated with accessories, scarves, lingerie, gloves, caps, etc.

Patou loved women, and during his visit to the US in 1925, he was so impressed by the long-legged American girls so he organized an audition gathering 500 girls, out of which he choose 6 to return with him to Paris. He was gifted by the good marketing sense, and this event gave him a good advertising as it created uproar in the French press.

He presents three perfumes for women, each related to women of different hair color – Amour Amour devoted to brunettes (fresh opening with sweet notes of bergamot, strawberry and lemon; floral heart of ylang-ylang, rose, lily and carnation; and the base of vetiver, civet, honey and heliotrope); Que Sais-Je? for blonds (created by Henri Alméras, a fragrance that seduces with its sweet and mouthwatering accords of peach, honey and hazelnut wood); while Adieu Sagesse was devoted to red-haired. He was the first one to launch the tanning lotion, the legendary Huile de Chaldée, in 1927.

His perfume JOY, the fragrance I want to devote most of my attention here, was created with a lot of care, just like the most expensive Haute-Cotture dress, and thus it was extraordinary and timeless. It was presented by Jean Patou as 'the world's most expensive perfume' right at the time of the Great Depression, when the market of luxury fashion crushed and Jean Patou's house could survive only through the perfumes.

JOY is created of rare flowers in unique concentration of 10600 flowers of jasmine and 28 dozens of roses which adorn the exceptional heart of this perfume. With the time JOY attains enormous success and becomes the second best selling perfume of all times (the first best-selling is the legendary Chanel N°5).

Intense and luscious with alluring a dn irresistibly delightful floral composition, JOY was created by Henri Alméras. It opens with fragrant jilt tuberose, luscious rose, ylang-ylang blossom, aldehydes, sweet and mouthwatering pear, and green notes. The heart beats passionately in pure and sweetly fresh jasmine notes, and seductive balmy spicy and darkened iris root. The base whiffs with sensual musk, warm and milky-powdery sandalwood and mild musky civet tones.

The bottle, simple and straight lined with a golden thread around its neck, was designed by the architect Louis Süe in 30ml, 50ml and 100ml sizes for Eau de Parfume and
30ml and 50ml sizes for Eau de Toilette. Regardless of its simplicity, the bottle leaves an impression of luxury and gives a hint that its content is one of the best perfumes of the world. In 1932 Jean Patou designed a small black and red bottle in which this perfume is also presented.

Jean Patou managed to achieve most of his great ideas, the products of his unusually creative spirit. In 1930 he creates his Perfume Bar with a choice of cold, sweetish and bitter-sweet fragrant cocktails. There are 7 other essences available to add to each of the bases thus enabling creation of fragrances of our choice. This idea was a forerunner to newly open, contemporary Jean Patou Parfum Couture.

Many have cooperated with Jean Patou fashion house. His family members were also included in the business, among which his younger sister Madeleine. Madeleine was Patou's inspiration and an ideal of a woman, miniature, simple, mysterious, chic, and modern active woman. After Jean Patou’s death many famous creators were cooperating with Patou house, such as Estavez (in 1950s), Karl Lagerfeld (1960-1964), Jean Paul Gaultier (1971-1973), and Christian Lacroix (1981-1986).

In 1968 the house joined Jean Kerléo, who created the perfume 1000 named after the 1000 attempts to create such a unique composition. He also created Eau de Patou and all other renowned perfumes that famed the Patou house.

A fragrance that, by design of the bottle and the name, instantly reminded me of Joy is its floral-fruity successor Enjoy, a modern version of Joy, designed for the young and dynamic. Introduced in 2002, Enjoy brings us the scented notes of apricot, lightly spiced with nutmeg, and with sweetly fresh mandarin, banana, orange, bergamot, and pear. The heart has preserved the sweetness of the legendary Joy, and seduces with slightly spiced warm honey waves of Bulgarian rose, Indian jasmine, sweet, fresh, intensive and luscious accords of Turkish rose. The base is created of warm, powdery soft tones of vanilla, amber, sensual musk and patchouli. Enjoy was created by Jean Michel Duriez, and comes as Eau de Parfum in 30ml, 50ml and 75ml bottles.