For Hermès, the perfume adventure begins in 1951 with Eau d’Hermès, composed by Edmond Roudnitska, one of the greatest creative spirits of the world of fragrances.
Ten years later, the birth of Calèche, the establishment’s first women’s perfume, confirmed the involvement of Hermès in the craft of perfume creation. Since then, fragrance has followed fragrance, each signed by the great names of perfume design. The arrival of Jean-Claude Ellena, in 2004, as the in-house perfumer for Hermès, was a decisive step.
In 1961, at the prompting of Jean-René Guerrand (son-in-law of Émile Hermès and founder of the fragrances branch), the perfumer Guy Robert composed Calèche, a masterpiece which instantly transformed Hermès into one of the major players of modern perfumery. Nine years later, moreover, he would be the author of Équipage, the House's first perfume for men.