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Jean Paul Gaultier

Le Male

1995FougèreEDTFrance

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Editorial notes

  1. 01

    A lavender-vanilla fougère that popularised the sweet-fougère template dominating masculine fragrance for the next two decades, the modern descendant of Caron's 1934 Pour un Homme.

  2. 02

    Kurkdjian drew on the smell of a 1950s barbershop full of lavender, evoking 'a very good-looking man taking care of himself'.

  3. 03

    Francis Kurkdjian was 26 when he composed Le Male. Its commercial success funded his later founding of Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

  4. 04

    Composed by Francis Kurkdjian in 1995, the masculine counterpart to Classique, in a blue-glass torso flacon wearing the Breton sailor's striped marinière, sold in a tin can.

Dossier

Edition · 000

Status · Active. Bestseller.

A lavender-vanilla fougère.

Composed by
Francis Kurkdjian
Bottle by
Jean Paul Gaultier
Founder
Jean Paul Gaultier
Country
France

The pyramid

Top
lavendermintbergamotcardamom
Heart
cinnamoncuminorange blossom
Base
vanillatonkaambersandalwoodcedar

The brief

Kurkdjian drew on the smell of a 1950s barbershop full of lavender, evoking 'a very good-looking man taking care of himself'.

Name'Le Male', the masculine counterpart to Gaultier's 1993 Classique.

Why it mattered

  • Popularised the lavender-vanilla 'sweet fougère' template that dominated masculine fragrance in the late 1990s and 2000s

The flacon

Blue-glass flacon sculpted as a male torso in a Breton sailor's striped marinière, sold in a tin can.

Footnotes

  • Francis Kurkdjian was 26 years old when he composed Le Male; it became one of the best-selling masculine fragrances in the world and funded his later founding of Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

The Curator's Note

A 26-year-old's first masterpiece paid for his future maison.

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