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Coty

Chypre

1917ChypreParfumFrance

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Editorial notes

  1. 01

    The fragrance that names an entire olfactory family, after the Mediterranean island where the bergamot-and-oakmoss accord had circulated for centuries.

  2. 02

    François Coty formalised a folk perfume into a structural template that would underpin Mitsouko two years later, and every great chypre of the twentieth century after.

  3. 03

    Coty's commercial empire collapsed; the perfume was discontinued for decades. The original 1917 formula survives only at the Osmothèque in Versailles, where it can still be smelled by appointment.

  4. 04

    Composed by François Coty in 1917 around bergamot, jasmine, oakmoss and labdanum. Arguably the single most influential composition of twentieth-century perfumery.

Dossier

Edition · 000

Status · Discontinued. Preserved at the Osmothèque.

A the original chypre — bergamot, oakmoss, labdanum.

Composed by
François Coty
Founder
François Coty
Country
France

The pyramid

Top
bergamotorangelemonneroli
Heart
rosejasmineylang-ylangcarnation
Base
oakmosslabdanumpatchoulicivetmusk

The brief

Coty formalised a Mediterranean folk perfume tradition into a structural template — and in doing so created the chypre family that would carry Mitsouko, Femme, Miss Dior and every great twentieth-century chypre that followed.

NameNamed after the island of Cyprus (Chypre in French), where the bergamot-and-oakmoss accord had been blended into local perfumes for centuries.

Why it mattered

  • The fragrance that gave the chypre olfactory family its name and modern structural template — arguably the single most influential perfume composition of the twentieth century.

Footnotes

  • Discontinued for decades after Coty's collapse; the formula is preserved at the Osmothèque in Versailles where it can still be smelled by appointment.

The Curator's Note

Every chypre you have ever smelled owes this dead fragrance a debt.

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