Demeter Fragrance Library

Essential Information

Founded: 1993
Founders: Christopher Brosius and Christopher Gable
Official website: English-language official site (the Japanese distributor is here)

Why did a company like Serge Lutens (in Japanese) become popular, and why did Annick Goutal (in Japanese) emerge? Because we focused on making perfume and abandoned the idea that we had to have a collection, make a statement, or create something other than perfume for a licensing deal. Perfume is not a fashion accessory like a wallet. It does not work in quite the same way.

Christopher Brosius

The Founding Story

Demeter Fragrance was founded in 1993 in Pennsylvania, in the northeastern United States, by Christopher Brosius and Christopher Gable. The name Demeter comes from the Greek goddess of grain and the earth and means “Mother Earth” in Ancient Greek.

The Founder

Born around 1963, Christopher Brosius spent his childhood in the 1960s surrounded by nature: dirt, dandelions, vegetable gardens, and woods. In the late 1970s, he took chemistry in high school and learned how to measure precisely. Interested in architecture, he then went to Columbia University to study visual design.
After graduating, he spent several years driving a taxi in New York. It was apparently during this period that he realized he hated perfume. A woman once got into his cab, and even 12 hours later, at the end of his shift, it was still filled with her fragrance, making him feel ill.
He later attended school to study couture and worked at Barneys, before serving as creative director at Kiehl’s from 1988 to 1992. There he learned to create scents by blending essential oils (in Japanese). Apparently, his first fragrance was for Cindy Crawford, a Kiehl’s fan. He also created perfume for Naomi Campbell.

After leaving Kiehl’s, he founded Demeter with his business partner Gable in 1992 and created its perfumes as perfumer and creative director until 2004. He left the brand that year to establish his own house, CB I Hate Perfume, which continues today. In fact, he has said that very poor personal relationships were the reason for leaving. CB I Hate Perfume was founded on the idea of doing something about perfume precisely because he hated it. Compared with Demeter, its creations evoke more specific places and times, such as “wet stone,” “wet London pavement,” or “November.”

Mark Behnke, who runs Colognoisseur, describes him as “one of the perfumers who has most successfully created fragrances capturing naturally occurring smells not abstractly, but as realist compositions,” and calls him “one of the most talented independent perfumers; no other perfumer can do what he does with fragrance.”

My perfumes are not simply designed to evoke a sensation, but to use that sensation deliberately to make the person wearing the scent feel truly wonderful and special. It is the difference between “Oh my God, this smells like dirt!” and “I love this scent because I love gardening, and that is always when I am happiest.”

Christopher Brosius

Demeter Fragrance Library

Demeter began with the idea of “capturing the beautiful everyday smells of gardens and nature and turning them into perfumes everyone could wear.” In 1996, it launched its first three scents, Dirt, Grass, and Tomato, making its debut at the New York department store Henri Bendel.

In September 1999, it opened a standalone store in New York’s East Village, selling 140 fragrances alongside clothing designed by Brosius. Created to “bring back memories and turn back time,” Demeter perfumes live up to the Fragrance Library name: the house has produced hundreds of scents that open doors to different people’s memories.

In 2002, the two founders sold Demeter Fragrance to Mark Crames, and Gable went on to work as marketing manager, continuing to the present day. Mark was probably instrumental in transforming the Demeter founded by Brosius, who would have been happy with a small community, into a major brand sold around the world. Incidentally, Mark had worked as a fragrance distributor selling brands such as Halston and Pierre Cardin.

What Matters to the Brand

To create fragrances that can be used every day, all Demeter perfumes are designed as linear, single-note (in Japanese) scents. The brand believes that because they capture objects and experiences encountered in daily life, they can be worn comfortably every day.

Demeter also says that smell is humanity’s most powerful emotional trigger, and perfume is a personal expression of emotion. And that all its fragrances are for the wearer, not the designer.

As part of its approach to ingredients, 95% of its ingredients come from natural or renewable resources. It uses no synthetic coloring, so any color in its perfumes comes from natural ingredients. Its alcohol is derived from corn. Both natural and synthetic fragrance materials are used.