FRANCE. L’Oréal’s Luxury Products Division has signed an agreement with Maison Martin Margiela to create a line of fragrances. According to the company, the agreement expresses the shared wish of both parties to “combine their expertise and reflect the unconventional and innovative world of Maison Martin Margiela through a perfume”.
Graduating from the Académie Royale d’Anvers in 1979, Martin Margiela joined Jean Paul Gaultier’s team before founding Maison Martin Margiela in 1988.
At the same time Hermès entrusted him with the artistic direction of its collections from 1999 to 2004.
In 2002 Renzo Rosso, President of the Only The Brave Group joined forces with Margiela, becoming a majority shareholder in the company.
Today Maison Martin Margiela is structured around 32 single brand sales outlets and more than 500 multi-brand stores across five continents. In six years their turnover has increased fourfold.
Often characterised as iconoclastic and experimentalist, Maison Martin Margiela bases its creative expression on recycling, transformation and reinterpretation.
The colour white – a symbol of simplicity and purity – unifies all the premises and items belonging to the house, and has become its most obvious visual identity.
“In our constant search for new forms of expression and creation, the desire to design a perfume appeared obvious,” noted Maison Martin Margiela. “This perfume must be in our image, an elixir of all that we are and are fond of.
“The L’Oréal teams give us the human support and skills necessary to launch us on this adventure, while respecting our history, identity and values. This partnership is also a union between two worlds which mutually complement, support, nurture and inspire.”
Patricia Turck Paquelier, President of Prestige and Collections International within L’Oréal’s Luxury Products Division, added: “By pre-empting the “˜No Logo’ domain, for more than 20 years Maison Martin Margiela has opened up a novel channel in the luxury market with its discreet label with four stitches.
“This signature scent will inspire radical new perspectives for perfumes with a more personal approach, following the success of the brands with star logos. A requirement for the thousands of people worldwide searching for unostentatious luxury, as always with Maison Martin Margiela, we will explore new areas with them for an unconventional expression of their perfumes.”
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