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Givenchy

L'Interdit

1957FloralEDPFrance

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Editorial notes

  1. 01

    A powdery aldehydic floral that began as Hubert de Givenchy's private gift to Audrey Hepburn, conceived as the olfactive portrait of her gamine elegance.

  2. 02

    Hepburn allegedly forbade its commercial release, hence the name when Givenchy eventually went ahead. She became its first wearer and its first face.

  3. 03

    Hepburn's 1957 print appearance in the L'Interdit campaign is widely credited as the birth of the celebrity-face perfume advertising tradition.

  4. 04

    Composed by Francis Fabron in 1957 around aldehydes, peach and bergamot over an iris-jasmine heart, with a sandalwood-amber drydown.

Dossier

Edition · 000

Status · Active. Reformulated 2018.

A powdery aldehydic floral.

Composed by
Francis Fabron
Founder
Hubert de Givenchy
Country
France

The pyramid

Top
aldehydespeachbergamotstrawberry
Heart
jasmineirisroseylang-ylangnarcissusviolet
Base
sandalwoodambertonkamuskbenzoin

The brief

Givenchy and Hepburn were close friends and creative collaborators; the fragrance was conceived as a personal portrait of Hepburn's elegance, gamine and restrained.

Name'L'Interdit' — 'The Forbidden' in French. The fragrance was originally Hubert de Givenchy's private gift to Audrey Hepburn; she allegedly forbade him to commercialise it, hence the name when he eventually did.

Worn by

  • Audrey Hepburn1957

    Was the muse and the first wearer; her likeness appears in the launch ad — making her arguably the first celebrity face of a perfume in the modern sense.

Footnotes

  • Audrey Hepburn appearing in the 1957 L'Interdit print campaign is widely credited as the birth of the celebrity-face perfume advertising tradition.
  • Reformulated and relaunched several times since; the 2018 version is a markedly different composition aimed at a younger audience.

The Curator's Note

Hepburn forbade it. Givenchy released it anyway. Modern advertising was born.

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