Basic Information
Founded: 1921 (the brand ended in 1961 and was revived in 2018)
Founder: JACOB S. WIEDHOPF
Current director: Rainer Diersche
Official website: English-language official website (Official Japanese distributor)
Founding History
Jacob Wiedhopf, the founder of Parfums Ciro, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1889. His parents were German immigrants who had come to America from Germany via Ellis Island. New York was then attracting immigrants from many different countries, and Jacob grew up amid talk of the American dream.
He first encountered perfume as a young man working in the fragrance-importing business at the Alfred H. Smith Company. In 1921, Jacob and a business partner established the Guy T. Gibson Company on Fifth Avenue in New York. Over the next few years, they imported and sold Caron (in Japanese), a perfume brand he greatly admired, helping to establish it in America.
In 1923, he realized his dream of creating his own fragrance brand: Parfums Ciro. Its perfumes were composed by Henriette Gabilla, a perfumer at the French fragrance house Gabilla. The first perfume she made for Jacob was called Ambre de Jadis, and its bottle, designed by sculptor Julien Viar, was manufactured at the Baccarat factory.
The company expanded to Paris in 1936 and changed its name to Parfums Ciro, Inc. in 1939.
In 1949, Jacob became the first president of The Fragrance Foundation, established in New York. To inspire the world with the artistry and passion of fragrance, TFF presents awards to perfumers and perfumes in various categories every year. Past winners include Estée Lauder and Chanel, as well as perfumers such as Alberto Morillas (in Japanese) and Dominique Ropion (in Japanese). Records survive from 1973 onward, and the awards have helped bring perfumers and brands wider recognition. Jacob was also apparently active in developing new fragrances, working with chemists to research longevity and consumer habits.
After retiring as head of CIRO in 1955, Jacob served as head of Roure Dupont (in Japanese) until 1963. He died in July 1971 at the age of 81.
Donald L. Bryant became CIRO’s new CEO in 1957. The house ultimately created just under 20 different fragrances, but Panorama, released in 1961, was its last new scent, and the brand came to an end.
Time moved on, and in 2003 the German-born Rainer Diersche launched LINARI (in Japanese), based on the belief that a beautiful space needs a wonderful scent. His passion for fragrance then led him to a brand said to have once taken America by storm, and CIRO’s reconstruction, or rather its resuscitation, began.
Many of the perfumes now sold by CIRO are modern versions of fragrances it once offered. The bottle design has also been completely renewed, with 24K gold caps, fragrance concentrations (in Japanese) of 20–30%, the modern Futura typeface, and flacons (in Japanese) that seem to take their cue from iPhone cases.
| Name | Original | New | Perfumer |
| FLOVERIS | 1930 | 2018 | Alexandra Carlin |
| PTAH | 1923 | 2018 | Alexandra Carlin |
| MASKÉE | 1923 | 2018 | Alexander Streeck |
| LE CHYPRE DU NIL | 1924 | 2018 | Alexandra Carlin |
| CHEVALIER DE LA NUIT | 1923 | 2018 | Alexander Streeck |
| L’HEURE ROMANTIQUE | 1929 | 2018 | Alexander Streeck |
| Columbine | 2019 | Alexandra Carlin |
