CARINE ROITFELD PARFUMS: From Vogue Editor-in-Chief to a Fragrance House

“Fragrance is the most eloquent expression of style. It tells the world who you are.”
— Carine Roitfeld (W Magazine, 2019)​

Essential Information

Founded: 2019
Founder: Carine Roitfeld
Co-founder: Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Carine’s son
Official website: carineroitfeld.com

The Founder and the Origins of the House

A Girl Who Grew Up in Paris’s 16th Arrondissement

Carine Roitfeld was born in Paris on September 19, 1954. She grew up in Auteuil, in the city’s 16th arrondissement, a leafy, affluent residential neighborhood between the Champs-Élysées and the Bois de Boulogne. Her father, Jacques Roitfeld, was a Russian immigrant and film producer; her mother was someone Carine herself has described as “a typical French woman.”

Her interest in fashion developed naturally from childhood.

“When I was growing up in the 16th arrondissement, my mother subscribed to Elle. The fashion photographs I saw in that magazine are my earliest memories.”
— Carine Roitfeld (La Réserve Mag, 2019)​

Scouted on a Paris street as a teenager, Carine began working as a model. This was her first step into the world of fashion. In 1977, she began writing for the press, and subsequently spent around fifteen years building a career as a stylist at French Elle. Developing her skills on her own, she cultivated a style that was not constrained by established definitions of beauty and always contained “a grain of rebellion.”

Meeting Mario Testino and the Tom Ford Years

A turning point came in 1990, when she met photographer Mario Testino. The two immediately connected and began working together for publications including French and American Vogue. When Tom Ford later became Gucci’s creative director, he recruited the photographer-and-stylist duo to take part in a major project to revitalize the dormant Italian heritage house.

Gucci’s advertising campaigns and runway shows styled by Carine became a body of work later described as “landmark.” Provocative yet refined, crossing taboos while retaining elegance, this distinctive aesthetic was also called “porno chic,” although Carine herself dislikes the term. It reshaped the language of fashion advertising from the late 1990s into the 2000s. When Tom Ford became creative director of Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, Carine went with him.

Ten Years as Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Paris

In 2001, Carine was appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris by Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International. Over those ten years, she transformed the magazine into a “bible” in which sensuality and intellect coexisted. Her choices challenged the conventions of fashion publishing and attracted attention, including putting a Black, bearded drag star on the cover in 2007.

“I don’t use models simply as models. I see them as actresses.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Surface Mag, 2019)​

In December 2010, Carine resigned as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris after a ten-year tenure. She was succeeded by Emmanuelle Alt, the magazine’s longtime fashion director.​

A Dream of Perfume: An Eight-Year Undertaking

After leaving the magazine world, Carine unexpectedly turned to perfume. Rather than launching a fashion brand, she chose fragrance, a dream she had cherished for years.

“This is the dream of my life.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Fashionista, 2019)​

The road, however, was not smooth.

“I was a little naive and thought the fashion world and the beauty world were the same. But they were completely different. They weren’t the same people, and they didn’t have the same rules. It was an entirely different world.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Fashionista, 2019)​

When she felt close to giving up, it was Karl Lagerfeld’s words that encouraged her. At his last Chanel show, Lagerfeld told her: “When I was first approached about the Chanel job, I listened to the people around me and turned it down. They opposed it the second time, too. In the end, I accepted because everyone told me not to. It’s the same with your perfume.” Taking those words to heart, Carine continued to develop her fragrances.​

Development took a full eight years. Throughout that time, she and her son Vladimir funded the entire process themselves, without relying on any outside capital. Vladimir later explained:

“Without outside financial support, and without licensing the name to any major fragrance or beauty group, we created the most honest collection we could imagine on a limited budget. Carine herself made every creative decision, from developing the scents to designing the bottles, the concept, and the storyline. This embodies her as a person, an artist, and a trendsetter.”
— Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld (Beauty Matter)​

The very idea of turning her name into a brand, incidentally, was originally proposed by Vladimir.

“It wasn’t my idea. I’m too French for that! [Laughs.] It was the idea of my son, who spends time in America.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Fashionista, 2019)​

And so, in May 2019, the house of Carine Roitfeld Parfums was born.

The House’s Commitments

A Philosophy of Telling Stories Through Scent

What Carine seeks in a fragrance is not simply olfactory beauty. It is a “story” in which people, places, memories, and emotions merge into one.

“What I learned at Vogue is that telling a story is much easier than talking about a scent. It’s difficult to put fragrance into words. But people love stories, and they remember stories.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Glossy, 2022)​

Another of her consistent beliefs is that fragrance should not be constrained by gender. All seven creations were designed as genderless, or unisex, consciously doing away with the distinction between “for men” and “for women.”

High-Quality Materials and Talented Perfumers

Carine’s sensitivity to scent dates back to her teenage years.

“When I was eighteen and didn’t have much money, I often bought patchouli, incense, and scarves at Indian shops. Incense to burn in my room, and perfume to wear.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Glossy, 2022)​

This formative experience led to her attachment to patchouli, which later became the house’s signature material. High-quality natural and synthetic fragrance materials are used generously throughout the collection, creating scents that are sensual and deep without leaning too heavily toward sweetness.​

“My tastes are quite unusual. I don’t like sweet scents such as rose or orange, and I hate grapefruit. In short, I wasn’t interested in anything already on the shelves. So I fought my way forward and worked with three perfumers to create original fragrances.”
— Carine Roitfeld (La Réserve Mag, 2019)​

Her work with perfumers was a sincere collaboration with masters she met through Tom Ford’s help. Three perfumers worked on 7 Lovers: Aurélien Guichard (in Japanese), Pascal Gaurin of IFF, and Yann Vasnier, also of IFF.

The flagship fragrance Carine and Forgive Me were composed by the internationally renowned perfumer Dominique Ropion (in Japanese) of IFF. Their connection reportedly began when Carine approached Ropion herself at a Fragrance Foundation awards ceremony.

Bottle Design: Attention to Touch and Color

The 7 Lovers bottles are made of ergonomically shaped glass, designed with the intention of feeling “sensual to hold.” Their color is deep khaki, Carine’s signature shade. She reportedly chose everything herself, from the bottle’s shape to its color.​

A different bottle design was adopted for the flagship Carine, while the mysterious tone of amethyst purple was chosen for Forgive Me. By varying the bottles’ colors and textures between collections, the house also gives visual expression to each fragrance’s world.​

A Commitment to Self-Financing and In-House Development

Another important principle is the house’s structure: operating without outside capital or licensing its name to a major fragrance group. This allows the founders to retain every creative decision in their own hands and prioritize creating “the most honest collection.”​

The Fragrance Collection

The Carine Roitfeld Parfums collections identified to date can broadly be divided into the following three groups.

① 7 Lovers (2019): Seven Cities and Seven Lovers

The house’s debut collection. Seven is Carine’s “lucky number,” and the collection comprises seven creations inspired by memories associated with seven cities and by real or fictional people.

Fragrance	City	Perfumer	Key Notes
Aurélien	Paris	Aurélien Guichard	Orange blossom, myrrh, jasmine, patchouli
George	London	Yann Vasnier	Iranian galbanum, iris, cannabis, leather
Kar-Wai	Hong Kong	Pascal Gaurin	Lapsang souchong tea, Turkish rose, leather
Lawrence	Dubai	Yann Vasnier	Jasmine, saffron, oud, Tolu balsam
Orson	New York	Aurélien Guichard	Hawthorn flower, tuberose, ylang-ylang, tonka bean
Sebastian	Buenos Aires	Pascal Gaurin	Tuberose, immortelle, sandalwood, vanilla
Vladimir	Saint Petersburg	Pascal Gaurin	Iris, incense, amber, cedar, sage

​​

Each fragrance’s name has its own origin. Orson is named after Orson Welles; Kar-Wai after film director Wong Kar-wai; Lawrence after Lawrence of Arabia; George after Prince George, the future king; Sebastian after photographer Sebastian Faena; and Vladimir after Carine’s son.​

For the launch, Carine attracted attention with a guerrilla marketing campaign that put up at least four hundred nude posters around Paris.

“When you create something with this much honesty, you feel as though you are naked, because you are baring your soul.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Paper Mag, 2019)​

② Carine (2022): Turning Herself into a Fragrance

The flagship fragrance, introduced in 2022, was composed by Dominique Ropion. Its notes include Indonesian patchouli, jasmine, gardenia, pink pepper, vetiver, and Cashmeran.​​

“Revealing my new perfume, Carine, is like walking naked down the Champs-Élysées. This is my most intimate journey, opening the door to my emotions, memories, dreams, and fantasies.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Haute Living, 2022)​

“When you create a fragrance, you have to tell the perfumer everything. You cannot lie. You have to tell the truth.”
— Carine Roitfeld (Glossy, 2022)​

Carine is currently sold in at least twenty countries.​

③ Forgive Me (2023): A Tribute to Her Daughter

Announced in November 2023, Forgive Me was again composed by Dominique Ropion. Carine’s daughter Julia Restoin-Roitfeld was chosen as its muse, embodying the fragrance’s ultimate femininity and sensuality.

Its notes include Indian tuberose, ylang-ylang, gardenia, Tunisian orange blossom, Indonesian patchouli, labdanum, and olibanum. The bottle has a mysterious amethyst-purple hue.

“Wearing Forgive Me means revealing the other woman within you, as though seeing a different self in the mirror.”
— Official website​

An Additional Note…

• A Formative Encounter with Patchouli: At eighteen, when money was scarce, Carine reportedly bought patchouli incense and perfume at Indian shops in Paris. This unpolished early encounter would later become the signature material of a globally prominent luxury brand.​
• The CFDA Founder’s Award: In 2019, the same year that 7 Lovers launched, Carine received the Founder’s Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Tom Ford himself presented the award. It recognized not only her accomplishments as a fashion-magazine editor-in-chief, but also her creative influence on the industry as a whole.​