Marc Jacobs: A Fragrance Story That Bloomed in New York

“Daisy was not a calculated moment at all. The perfumer was inspired by the story I told, and suddenly there were the juice, the bottle, and the box. The spirit of Daisy lives in everyone, because that innocence has become a symbol everywhere.”

— Marc Jacobs (Harper’s Bazaar interview, 2023)

Basic Information

Founded: The fragrance division formally launched in 2001
Founder: Marc Jacobs
Fragrance license: Partnership with Coty Inc. (fiscal 2003–present)
Official website: marcjacobsfragrances.com

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

A Boy Born in New York

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City on April 9, 1963. His life was turbulent from an early age. His father died of ulcerative colitis when Marc was seven, and his mother, who was emotionally unstable, remarried three times. With each marriage, the children were moved from place to place: New Jersey, Long Island, and the Bronx.

Eventually, Marc chose to live with his paternal grandmother, Helen, on New York’s Upper West Side. This decision became a starting point for the brand that would later bear his name.

“I always say that I went through life with my grandmother. She was emotionally stable and gave me tremendous encouragement.”

— Marc Jacobs

His grandmother loved fashion and travel. She taught Marc to knit and encouraged his curiosity without reservation. There were no gender-based restrictions or words of rejection at home.

“No one said ‘no’ to me. No one said, ‘You can’t be a fashion designer,’ or ‘You’re a boy, so you can’t take tap-dancing lessons,’ or ‘Being gay is wrong.’ No one said any of those things.”

— Marc Jacobs (The New York Times)

An Awakening to Fashion: Charivari and Parsons

At fifteen, Marc began working without pay as a stock boy at Charivari, a celebrated multibrand boutique on the Upper West Side. Folding clothes and dressing mannequins, he learned the fashion business from the inside. According to a Harper’s Bazaar interview, his fascination with clothes was so deep that at around twelve or thirteen he would fall asleep each night imagining himself “neatly folding a red Lacoste corduroy shirt.”

After graduating from New York’s High School of Art and Design in 1981, Marc enrolled at Parsons School of Design. While there, he presented a graduation collection of hand-knit sweaters using the knitting skills his grandmother had taught him and won three honors: Design Student of the Year, the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award, and the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award. Those sweaters were also an embodiment of his bond with his grandmother.

At the Parsons graduation dinner, Marc met Robert Duffy, an executive at Reuben Thomas. Duffy noticed his designs and promptly put him in charge of a womenswear collection under the Sketchbook label. Their meeting marked the beginning of a creative partnership lasting at least thirty years.

A Brand Bearing His Own Name

In 1986, with financial support from Japan’s Onward Kashiyama, Marc and Duffy presented their first collection under the Marc Jacobs label. In 1987, after graduation, Marc became the youngest recipient at the time of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent, regarded as the industry’s highest award for an emerging designer.

The “Failure” of Grunge, and the Reversal That Followed

In 1988, Marc and Duffy both moved to Perry Ellis, where Marc became vice president of womenswear design. There, he embarked on another challenge.

In 1992, for the Spring/Summer 1993 collection, Marc brought Seattle’s grunge culture directly onto the runway. Oversized checked shirts, flannel, Dr. Martens, disheveled hair: models walked to the sounds of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and L7.

“I wanted them to look the way they do when they walk down the street. Not like drag queens, or strange creatures… Beautiful girls today look a little unkempt, because that is how they really are.”

— Marc Jacobs (The New York Times, 1993)

The industry’s reaction, however, was swift and harsh. Critics called it “sloppy” and accused him of turning working-class clothing into expensive merchandise, and the collection was canceled before production. Marc was fired from Perry Ellis. According to legend, pieces from the collection were sent to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, who burned them.

Time, however, reversed that verdict. Today, the collection is reassessed as one of the most influential presentations in 1990s fashion history. Decades after his dismissal, Cathy Horyn, who had harshly dismissed it as “sloppy,” publicly retracted her judgment in New York magazine.

The Louis Vuitton Chapter

After the dismissal, Marc and Duffy quickly got back on their feet, launching their own licensing company, Marc Jacobs International, in autumn 1993 and rebuilding the brand independently. In 1997, through Anna Wintour’s connections, Marc was introduced to LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and became Louis Vuitton’s first creative director. There, he established the first ready-to-wear line for a house previously focused on luggage and leather goods, and his collaborations with Takashi Murakami and Stephen Sprouse helped turn it into a global cultural phenomenon.

During his sixteen years at Louis Vuitton, from 1997 to 2013, Marc continued to grow his own brand in parallel. He made a full-scale entry into the fragrance business in 2001, and in fiscal 2003 Coty acquired the fragrance license from a division of LVMH. After leaving Louis Vuitton in October 2013, he devoted himself to expanding his own brand.

What Defines the Brand

The Philosophy of Fragrance Creation: The Story Comes First

One of the most distinctive features of Marc Jacobs’s fragrance development is a process that begins with a story rather than a scent.

“It starts with a name. Then I begin telling the story of what that word means to me. Coty translates those visual cues, and the words and stories I throw out, into a fragrance.”

— Marc Jacobs (Cosmopolitan UK, 2014)

Marc himself participates in fragrance development not as a chief perfumer, but as a creative director who defines its spirit. Through Coty, the actual compositions are entrusted to world-class perfumers such as Alberto Morillas, Domitille Michalon-Bertier of IFF, Ann Gottlieb, and Calice Becker.

Attention to Bottles and Packaging

In Marc Jacobs’s fragrances, the bottle functions as another work of design.

The Daisy bottle is a clear glass block topped with flowers whose soft, daisy-shaped petals move when touched. The official website describes it as “a retro-cool twist that embodies vintage charm and modernity at the same time.”

Marc himself has spoken about the cap of Lola.

“I had in mind the color palette of the cruise collection I was working on at the time. I started trying out fabric and leather swatches at random, and that became the basis for the cap design.”

— Marc Jacobs (WWD)

Released in 2015, Decadence has a deep-green bottle modeled on Marc’s iconic handbags, with a gold chain, a black tassel, and a magnetically secured cap. It attracted considerable attention as “a fusion of fragrance and a designer handbag.”

The Perfect bottle unexpectedly pairs elegantly curved glass with a cap brimming with charms. Marc designed it himself while on holiday, “taking charms out of a box and arranging them.”

The Fragrance Lineup

From the 2001 Debut to the Present

Marc Jacobs’s fragrance story began in 2001 with Marc Jacobs for Women. A men’s fragrance followed in 2002. More than one hundred fragrances have appeared to date, and the history can broadly be divided into the following phases.

The Splash Collection (2006 Onward)

Introduced in 2006, Splash consisted of light fragrances in generous sizes, each focused on a single fragrance material. This “single-note” collection included Grass, Rain, Cotton, Cucumber, and Pear, presented in large, minimalist bottles. Its concept was refreshingly different: “Not a fragrance for special occasions, but something to use whenever the mood takes you.”

The Daisy Family (2007 Onward)

Daisy launched in 2007, created by Alberto Morillas of the Swiss company Firmenich. According to Erwan Le Berrigaud, who worked in marketing at Coty, its inspiration came from the friendship between Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola and the world of Coppola’s 1999 film The Virgin Suicides. The name is a tribute to Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

“I had a dog named Daisy, and I named her after Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Daisy is one of my favorite characters in literature. I also liked the irony of using a flower that has no scent as the basis for a floral fragrance.”

— Marc Jacobs (Harper’s Bazaar, 2023)

Its notes include wild berries, white violet, jasmine, and sandalwood. At the Fragrance Foundation’s 2008 FiFi Awards, it won Women’s Luxury Fragrance of the Year and Best Packaging, Women’s Prestige. From 2018 onward, it has also repeatedly won Allure’s Best of Beauty readers’ awards.

Industry sources estimate the Daisy franchise’s annual retail sales at approximately $300 million, making it an important source of revenue for Coty’s Marc Jacobs fragrance business.

Alberto Morillas has spoken about Daisy’s success.

“With its unforgettable olfactory signature, Daisy defined the trends of its time. In both fashion and fragrance, what Marc Jacobs strives for is a sense of universal femininity, fresh flowers, and nature for young, happy women.”

— Alberto Morillas (Preview)

The Daisy family later expanded with flankers such as Daisy Eau So Fresh (2011), Daisy Dream (2014), and Daisy Love (2018 onward), with Daisy Wild joining in 2024.

Lola (2009 Onward)

Lola launched in 2009, created by Calice Becker and Yann Vasnier. It is a warm floral centered on fuchsia peony. Marc himself said, “If Daisy is innocent and sweet, Lola is more sensual. Even the name evokes a sexy, warm spirit.”

Bang (2010 Onward)

Launched in 2010, Bang was the brand’s first major men’s fragrance since 2002. Its perfumers were Ann Gottlieb and Yann Vasnier. A spicy, dry fragrance, it is built around three peppers, black, white, and pink, with woods and vetiver. The advertising campaign featured Marc Jacobs himself wearing nothing but the fragrance bottle, creating a major stir at the time.

“A men’s fragrance is, in a sense, something you put over your skin. So if I had worn anything else, it would only have looked ridiculous.”

— Marc Jacobs (Harper’s Bazaar, conversation with Calvin Klein, 2010)

Dot (2012 Onward)

Dot launched in 2012, created by Annie Buzantian and Ann Gottlieb. Its distinctive bottle takes its motif from the polka dots that Marc himself loves.

“Polka dots are cheerful, chic, and whimsical: an energetic pattern I have always loved.”

— Marc Jacobs (Official YouTube, 2012)

Decadence (2015 Onward)

Decadence launched in 2015, created by Annie Buzantian. It was the first fragrance that Marc explicitly positioned as a scent for a mature woman. An oriental floral, it is composed of plum, saffron, iris, Bulgarian rose, and vetiver. Its deep-green handbag-shaped bottle drew attention among stylists and collectors.

Perfect (2020 Onward)

Perfect is a new-generation flagship launched in 2020. Its perfumer is Domitille Michalon-Bertier of IFF.

The fragrance takes its name from the word “perfect” tattooed on Marc Jacobs’s wrist.

“I had this word tattooed on my wrist after taking part in a rehabilitation program. It is not an injunction to be perfect. It means, ‘I am perfect as I am.’ I make mistakes, and I grow. I show different sides of myself. But whatever form I take, all of it is perfect.”

— Marc Jacobs (Official Business Wire press release, 2020)

It is a powdery floral that unfolds from top notes of daffodil and rhubarb to a heart of almond milk and a base of cedarwood and Cashmeran. Its campaign featured a diverse cast of forty-two people, some selected through an open casting call on social media. This inclusive approach was widely praised within the industry.

A sister version, Perfect Eau de Toilette, joined the line in 2023. Coty CEO Sue Nabi stated, “Thanks to the Daisy and Perfect franchises, Marc Jacobs fragrances have grown into one of the world’s top ten women’s fragrances.”

By the Way…

The petals on the Daisy bottle move. The daisy petals decorating the cap are designed to bend when touched. Many collectors describe them on social media as “almost alive,” and fans around the world arrange multiple bottles on their shelves in what they call a “Daisy garden.”

Daisy takes its motif from the best-known “scentless flower.” As Marc Jacobs himself has noted, actual daisies have almost no scent. The paradox of creating the brand’s biggest fragrance from a “flower without fragrance” is a twist characteristic of the house.

A friendship with Sofia Coppola gave birth to Daisy. According to a Coty marketing representative, Daisy’s “attitude, mood, and imagery” were inspired by Marc Jacobs’s friendship with Sofia Coppola and her 1999 film The Virgin Suicides. Coppola later directed a television commercial for Daisy Eau So Fresh as well.

Takashi Murakami collaborates with Daisy (2025). In 2025, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami redesigned Daisy bottles in four colors, yellow, pink, green, and blue, for a limited-edition release.

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