Did you know that Le Jardin Retrouve was the first niche perfume house in the world? Yuri Gutsatz didn’t follow trends, he started them.
After several years in India, Yuri returned to Paris and felt frustrated that perfumers were still so anonymous, and that fragrances could only be produced by and for large companies. He felt this stifled the true nature of creativity in perfumers.
So what did he do? He founded Le Jardin Retrouve, the first niche perfume house. He ran the business from his Paris home, aided by his loyal wife Arlette and their sons. A year later, L’Artisan Parfumeur followed suit and after that, many more small indie brands came into being, but Le Jardin Retrouve was the very first, and we have Yuri’s pioneering spirit to thank for that. Every one of our fragrances is made from Yuri’s original formula: all timeless classics that don’t compromise their integrity to meet passing trends and fads.
Not only was Yuri the first perfumer to start his own brand, he was also the first to add accessories to the fragrances, such as matching lotions and soap. Prior to this, he was the first perfumer to fragrance an entire opera house! And did we mention that he was a co-founder of the world famous Osmotheque?
Today, we are guardians of his hundreds of formulae and we are proud to continue his work so that the world can appreciate his talent, even after he has gone.
“Oh,Perfumer! your name is no-one” wrote Yuri Gutsatz in 1979. When Yuri was immersed in his career, he and his fellow hard working noses, were kept out of the picture. Why? Because the couture houses who were launching fragrances encouraged a touch of mystique surrounding their scents. If that led their customers to believe their perfumes were created by couturiers and not perfumers, well, that was fine by them. But can you imagine Yuri and his contemporaries being ignored today?
Germaine Cellier created Fracas, Bandit and Miss Balmain. Jean Carles created Miss Dior, Shocking and Ma Griffe. Yuri himself created what later became Chromatics for Estee Lauderand Chasse Gardée for Carven (both sadly discontinued).
Luckily in 2019, we can appreciate their genius with the gratitude and the credit that they all deserve (and this is why at Le Jardin Retrouvé we put Yuri Gutsatz’s name on the bottles – and Maxence Moutte’s name on the Mousse Mystique candle he created for us).
Perfumer, your name matters.