Vintage Perfume - Mitsouko by Guerlain

Discover the History Behind this Genre-Defining Scent

Aug 24, 2009

This intriguing scent was inspired by stories of strong, elegant women. It has played a dramatic role in the movie industry.

Mitsouko, created in 1919, is certainly a passionate scent. Golden Era Hollywood actress Jean Harlow’s first husband, the MGM producer Paul Bern, allegedly poured his wife’s favourite scent all over his body before committing suicide two weeks after their wedding. In the film Belle de Jour, Catherine Deneuve’s character, the repressed wife Séverine, hurls a bottle of Mitsouko onto the floor before spending the afternoon as a prostitute. Indeed, many women have attested to its seductive powers.

The main muse for the fragrance was Mitsouko, wife of Japanese Admiral Togo and lover of a British Officer during the war between Russia and Japan . She remained dignified and composed during her heart-rending experience of waiting for both men to return from the war. She is the heroine in La Bataille (1909), a novel by Claude Farrère (1876-1957) which was very fashionable around the time. Chief perfumer Jacques Guerlain (1874-1963) found this story very inspiring, and it is also rumoured that he himself had a Japanese lover.

It is also possible that Jacques was also influenced by Mitsuko Coudenhove-Kalergi. Born Mitsuko Aoyama into a oil merchant family, she fell in love with Count Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi of Austria . She married him in 1892 and moved to Vienna, where she bore him several children. The Count’s choice of an Asian bride caused quite a scandal in Europe at the time, and she suffered considerable prejudice throughout her life.

Sadly, he died in 1906 when she was just thirty-three. Despite her grief she stoically did her duty, teaching herself law and economics in order to run the family estate, and ensuring her children were well educated. She remained in Vienna until her death in 1941.

According to the highly respected fragrance biophysicist Luca Turin, a chypre scent is made up of three components: citrus resinous, sweet-amber resinous and bitter resinous. The source of this structure in modern perfumery is Coty’s Chypre, made in 1917 and incredibly popular at the time.

Jacques Guerlain’s genius was to add a note of peach, in the form of the synthetic undecalactone to this, giving the chypre warmth and depth. Though the genre is not so popular today, Mitsouko still sells well.

Mitsouko is quite cool to begin with, like the reserved Japanese women who inspired it. After time it reveals its passionate, sensual heart. Often described as the warm counterpart to the cooler L’Heure Bleue (1912) which shares the same bottle design, it is said that the two fragrances frame World War I (1914-18).

Jacques Guerlain – the Family’s Greatest Nose

Jacques Guerlain created some of the most incredibly fragrances of the twentieth century, including Shalimar, Vol de Nuit and Habit Rouge. His path was paved by his Uncle Aimé, whose pioneering work combining synthetic and natural fragrances in Jicky heightened the possibilities for creative art in perfumery. He also brought creativity to the appearance of a fragrance, looking at the bottle, label and graphics.

He was highly respected in the industry – Ernest Beaux, chief perfumer for Chanel and creator of No.5, said of him – ‘When I use vanilla, I make crème brulee; when Jacques Guerlain uses vanilla, he makes Shalimar!’ A compliment indeed.

The copyright of the article Vintage Perfume - Mitsouko by Guerlain in Perfume is owned by Victoria Robinson. Permission to republish Vintage Perfume - Mitsouko by Guerlain in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.