Dossier
Edition · 000Status · Active. In continuous production since 1934.
A barbershop lavender-vanilla.
- Composed by
- Ernest Daltroff
- Founder
- Ernest Daltroff
- Country
- France
The pyramid
- Top
- lavenderlemonbergamot
- Heart
- rosemarygeraniumclary sagecedar
- Base
- vanillatonkamuskambergrisbenzoin
The brief
Daltroff overdosed natural lavender absolute (reportedly 61% of the formula) and resolved it onto a vanilla-tonka base — inventing the lavender-vanilla template that Le Male would later extend in 1995.
NameSimply 'For a Man' — Caron's claim that this was THE men's fragrance, no further qualifier needed.
Why it mattered
- Widely cited as the first dedicated men's fragrance in modern perfumery, and the oldest masculine still in continuous production today.
- The lavender-vanilla structure became the foundational masculine template of the twentieth century.
Footnotes
- Caron still presents Pour un Homme in the original 1934 ridged-cap flacon, one of the most unchanged bottle designs in luxury perfumery.
The Curator's Note
Every man who has ever asked for 'something classic' has been asking for this.