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 The
turn of the 20th century to the end of World War I may have
been considered the Golden Age of Perfume, but the period
from the 1920s to the outbreak of World War II can be considered
the time of the most memorable perfumes of the century. In
1903, Ernest Daltroff created Parfumerie Caron. Daltroff departed
from the norm of realistic reproduction of flower scents.
Instead, he experimented with the new absolutes and powerful
synthetic scents. He used pure phenyl acetic acid and terpineol
harmoniously with jasmine or rose essence. 1925 would go down
as an important date in the history of perfume. It was in
1925 when Art Deco and Shalimar were born. Jacques Guerlain
created Shalimar a few years earlier, but wanted to wait to
exhibit it at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris.
It was instantly a success. The fragrance named after the
Garden of Shalimar, built by emperor Shah Jehan for his favorite
wife, Mumtaz, gave perfumers a powerful, creamy-sweet vanilla
note changed 20th century perfumery. Jeanne Lanvin was at
the height of her career in 1927 when she decided to create
a fragrance in honor of her daughter's upcoming 30th birthday.
She wanted a perfume that would typify her fashion, much like
Nº5 did for Chanel. The final version of the fragrance consisted
of over sixty ingredients, and Lanvin named it Arpège, in
honor of her daughter, who was an accomplished musician.
With virtually the entire world mired in economic
depression, Jean Patou dreamed of a perfume that could serve
as the remedy for the cynicism of the time. He had perfumer
Henri Almeras create a perfume that consisted of unheard of
amounts of Bulgarian rose and jasmine from Grasse. Patou loved
the fragrance, but Almeras warned him that it was not possible
to create it on a commercial level because of the high costs
of the ingredients. Patou used this as his angle and launched
the perfume anyway. In the midst of a Great Depression, Patou
defied the odds, as Joy, the most expensive perfume in the
world, became a huge success. 
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