Maison IRFĒ: A Century of Memories in Dresses and Fragrance

“Simply retelling a story from the past is not enough for the present day.”

— Olga Sorokina (owner and creative director)

A silver-colored head and shoulders, a round body of red or black glass. Maison IRFĒ’s perfume bottles resemble dolls wearing little dresses. Beyond their appearance lies the story of a founding couple who traveled from Russia to Paris, and a woman who stepped from the pages of a book into the work of reviving the house.

To understand this brand, it is worth looking both at its hundred-year history and at the perspective behind its perfumes today. From the perfumes of the 1920s, which divided women by hair color and age, to the current collection based on moods and personalities, let us trace how the relationship between choosing clothes and choosing a fragrance has changed across the years.

Essential Information

Founded: 1924 (revived in 2008; the current fragrance collection was introduced in 2024)
Founders: Irina Romanova Youssoupoff and Felix Youssoupoff
Current owner and creative director: Olga Sorokina
Place of origin: Paris, France
Current base: New York, USA
Official website: Maison IRFĒ

The name IRFĒ combines the first names of its founders, Irina and Félix. Though the house was born in France, its name carries the lives of two people who had left their homeland.

The Founders and the Brand’s Beginnings

A House Opened in Paris by a Couple Who Had Left Their Homeland

Irina was a niece of Russia’s Emperor Nicholas II. Her husband Felix was a prince of the Youssoupoff family, who grew up surrounded by palace interiors and the clothes and jewels his mother wore. The sensibility cultivated in that environment later informed his interior decoration and the aesthetics of the house.

Married in 1914, the couple moved to Europe after the Russian Revolution and made their home in Paris. In 1924, they unveiled Maison IRFĒ at the Ritz on Place Vendôme. Irina herself appeared in its clothes at the late-night presentation.

The founding family’s status was not the clothing’s only distinguishing feature. The garments of the time had a modern, androgynous silhouette associated with boyish hairstyles. Irina embodied the brand, while relatives and friends joined the work. In time, branches opened in Normandy, London, and Berlin.

Carrying memories of the imperial court while creating new clothes for the 1920s: this relationship of translating an inherited aesthetic into a present-day form also offers a clue to the later revival.

In 1926, an Attempt to Express Differences among Women through Perfume

Following clothing, perfumes were introduced in 1926. The four scents, produced at Molinard in Grasse, were Blonde, Brunette, Titiane, and Gray Silver. They envisaged different types of women according to hair color and age. Gray Silver was dedicated to Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna.

Seen from today, these categories rely heavily on appearance. Even so, they show that the house was bringing differences among wearers into the conception of perfume, rather than offering just one fragrance to everyone. When considering the current perfumes, it is more useful to look at how the idea of “what kind of person to express through scent” has changed than to assume the old formulas have continued unchanged.

Financial difficulties brought the couture house to a close in 1931. According to the official history, perfume production continued afterward into the 1940s. Clothing and fragrance activities did not end at the same time, nor did they continue uninterrupted from then until today.

A Book Opens a Path beyond Modeling

Olga Sorokina, who undertook the revival, was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, and entered fashion as a model. In a 2015 interview, she recalled that working in cities including London, New York, and Berlin had helped her meet different people and develop her own ideas.

The turning point was Alexandre Vassiliev’s book Beauty in Exile. Reading about people who had left their homeland after the revolution and about fashion history, she became fascinated by IRFĒ’s story. According to a 2010 interview, she met the founders’ granddaughter, Xenia, in 2006.

That encounter in Paris became more than a procedure for using a dormant name. Sorokina was entrusted with preserving the founding family’s spirit while creating an entirely contemporary aesthetic. IRFĒ became her first role as a creative director.

Revival as a Question of How to Set the Past in Motion

In 2008, Sorokina’s relaunch of the house was unveiled at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. In 2013, she staged a show at Paris Fashion Week. Vogue’s interview ahead of that presentation also reported that the revival had the approval of the founders’ granddaughter. It was a process of bringing a name with a long history back into contemporary clothing design.

In the 2013 Vogue interview, she said that she had created the first collection as though the house had never stopped working. Bridging a gap of nearly eighty years did not mean making more old clothes, but imagining what the house would be creating now if it had continued to evolve throughout that time.

“I don’t want to fix IRFĒ in retro chic.”

— Olga Sorokina

These words from 2010 capture her approach. At the time, very few authentic old garments could be found, so a revival based on extensive archives was not possible. Rather than copying every detail of the clothes, Sorokina retained clues such as the Youssoupoff family’s crown motif and the purple associated with Irina’s favorite violets.

Meanwhile, the clothing of people living today changes with their mood. On some days they choose structured shapes; on others, soft and voluminous ones. Sorokina said that she observed the attitudes, tastes, and wishes of those around her and developed collections from materials. Not only masterpieces of the past, but changes in people today became subjects for creation.

Returning in New York to the Dresses She Wanted to Make

In 2016, the headquarters and design studio moved to New York. In her official personal account, Sorokina recalls feeling that, while her early contemporary collections were expanding, she had drifted from her original aim of making joyful, beautiful dresses. She therefore reconsidered the house’s direction, focusing on cocktail and evening dresses.

The move from Paris to New York was not simply a change of address. It was a time to choose anew what clothes to make and what people to imagine. This relationship between dresses and personalities would also become a starting point for creating perfume.

Five Fragrant Characters Born for the Centenary

In 2024, the house’s hundredth anniversary, Sorokina introduced a new collection of five fragrances. She developed a perfume project she had wanted to pursue since her time in Paris, starting from dresses and the emotions and personalities of the people who wear them.

She worked with perfumers from dsm-firmenich, allowing each character to run through both scent and bottle. It was a process of passing the perspective she had developed in clothing design to the perfumers’ selection of materials and the shaping of the containers.

What Matters to the Brand

Expressing Dresses and Personalities through Scent and Bottle

“For me, age, skin color, and nationality do not matter.”

— Olga Sorokina

What Sorokina sought to portray in fragrance was a person’s mood and preferred style, rather than age or appearance. The characters she had imagined while making clothes would appear in perfume too. The doll-shaped collection can be understood as five portraits born from that idea.

These personalities appear in the bottles before the scents are even smelled. FranceLab gave form to Sorokina’s sketches, creating small dressed figures with silver-colored heads and shoulders and bodies of colored glass. Louis Claverie also worked on the box design. In the red glass of Centifolia Rose, the “person in red” who inspired it remains present in the container.

For Saffron Leather, Ilias Ermenidis began with a woman who prefers trousers to skirts. The fragrance’s character tries on several dresses before going out in jeans. Saffron, bergamot, and raw leather give the composition an edge, while burnt rose and violet introduce flowers. The aromatic leather fragrance is conceived for both women and men, bringing masculine presence together with feminine elegance.

Bergamot, cinnamon, petitgrain, and cassis open the scent. Saffron meets cistus leaves, burnt rose, and violet at its heart, over raw leather, sandalwood album, and Atlas cedar. Green, earthy, and vegetal impressions accompany the leather, while cinnamon and cassis add warm fruitiness. This 50 ml eau de parfum develops the image of a trouser-wearing character through citrus, flowers, and woods as well as leather.

The Mini Dolls Gift Coffret presents the five fragrances in smaller bottles: Centifolia Rose, Saffron Leather, Smoldering Pepper, Marshmallow Musk, and Patchouli Forever Worn, each as a 10 ml eau de parfum. These miniature dolls are splash bottles, rather than sprays.

For sampling smaller quantities, the Discovery Set contains the same five fragrances in 3 ml spray vials. The 10 ml doll coffret and the 3 ml discovery set differ in the way the fragrance is applied as well as in volume.

A Red Dress Expressed through More than the Name of a Flower

In creating Centifolia Rose, Honorine Blanc imagined a bold woman going on a date in a red dress, and the roses one might give her. Pear accompanies bergamot and pink pepper, with rose, orris, and neroli at the floral heart. The presence of someone dressed in red extends into citrus, fruit, and flowers.

Cedarwood, sandalwood spicatum, and white musk form the base. Although the idea begins with a strong color, the fragrance’s imagery also includes the softness of cotton and skin. This rose-centered floral eau de parfum brings fruit, flowers, woods, and musk together in a 50 ml bottle.

One Perfumer Distinguishes Anticipation from the Heat of the Night

Alexis Grugeon’s Marshmallow Musk portrays a romantic dreamer. He sought to convey anticipation through marshmallow cotton, iris nectar, and fresh jasmine. Earl Grey tea, magnolia petals, and lavender petals introduce the fragrance.

The base combines fluffy woods, airy vanilla, and powdery musk. Marshmallow suggests both a sweet confection and a full, powdery, creamy texture. Flowers, tea, and musk form a gourmand musk eau de parfum, presented in a 50 ml doll-shaped bottle.

Smoldering Pepper, also by Grugeon, takes its subject from the heat of urban nightlife and a magnetic presence. Black pepper, saffron, and olibanum open the scent, followed by labdanum, Indonesian patchouli, and cypriol. Pepper meets resinous and woody elements in a spicy oud composition.

Bourbon vanilla, smoked leather, and oud make up the base, adding vanilla’s warmth to the dark, spicy character. Presented in a 50 ml doll-shaped bottle, it is intended for both men and women. Where Marshmallow Musk brings flowers and tea to its sweetness, Smoldering Pepper uses pepper, resins, and leather.

Translating a Person Who Seeks Change into a Combination of Materials

“Olga wanted this fragrance to combine incompatible ingredients, something rare and something familiar”

— Frank Voelkl (perfumer)

Frank Voelkl answered this brief with Patchouli Forever Worn. Its subject is an emotional personality seeking change and escape from a fixed routine. Honey, tobacco, and davana introduce the composition, followed by lavandin, Clearwood, and amber.

Patchouli Heart SFE, sandalwood, and cedarwood form the base. Classified as an amber wood fragrance, it centers on sweet tobacco and patchouli. Voelkl explains that he brought together three patchouli-related materials in its creation. It is an eau de parfum in a 50 ml bottle.

From People to Places: Turning the House’s Memories into Fragrance

Heritage comprises three fragrances inspired by Paris, London, and St. Moritz. The new collection was presented at a Fragrance Day event in New York on March 21, 2026. Unlike the doll-shaped fragrances born from people and dresses, these works draw on the house’s early boutiques and memories of places where its perfumes were introduced.

Ma France Folie Parisienne

This floral chypre takes its inspiration from Parisian couture and the house’s early boutique on Rue Duphot. Created by Givaudan’s Rodrigo Flores-Roux, it opens with lemon, angelica root, and ylang-ylang, moving into jasmine, Moroccan rose, and Florentine iris. Oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver, and sandalwood support the floral layers.

Notes suggesting black leather and ambergris add further facets to the flowers, moss, and woods. The transparent bottle draws on the house’s perfume advertisements in Vogue during the 1920s. Presented as a 100 ml eau de parfum, it uses a different bottle from the doll-shaped collection.

My Britain Lord & Lady

Clément Gavarry created this fragrance around the boutique at 46 Dover Street in London. It seeks the quiet strength and elegance associated with British aristocratic life. Lemon and black pepper meet smoked marshmallow, leading into incense, suede, and vanilla orchid.

Tonka bean, cashmere woods, and sandalwood form the base. Smoke accompanies the opening marshmallow sweetness, with suede and woods adding softness. The 100 ml eau de parfum bottle carries decoration inspired by the heraldry of the British nobility.

My St. Moritz Lakeside Bliss

The fragrance draws on memories of the house’s perfumes being introduced in historic St. Moritz hotels, and on resort life overlooking lakes and snowy mountains. Rodrigo Flores-Roux, who also created the Paris fragrance, places amber warmth at its center. Bergamot and mandarin open with magnolia leaf, clary sage, and coriander.

Bulgarian rose, Mexican cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, and opoponax form the heart. Labdanum, frankincense, patchouli, vanilla, styrax, and tolu balsam wrap the flowers, cocoa, and spices in rich resinous notes. The scene of lakes and snowy peaks becomes a 100 ml eau de parfum moving from bright citrus and herbs toward the warmth of amber.

An Aside…

In 2015, Sorokina’s Paris studio stood next to the hotel Le Burgundy. In fact, she had already stayed at the hotel before opening her studio. She had first been a guest right beside the place that would later become her workplace.

Rue Duphot in that neighborhood was also the location of the early house. Sorokina looked at old photographs of the street and took an interest in how the city had changed. In the Paris where she traced the founding family’s history, her own small memories had come to overlap.

References

1. CRASH Magazine, “OLGA SOROKINA ON HERITAGE” (April 20, 2015) — Her approach to revival, reading, and meeting the founding family — https://www.crash.fr/olga-sorokina-interview/
2. Maison IRFĒ, “Heritage” — The founders, the 1924 debut, early perfumes, interruption, and revival — https://irfe.com/heritage/
3. Maison IRFĒ, “ABOUT FRAGRANCE” — The 1926 perfumes, the move to New York, and inspiration for the current collection — https://irfe.com/about/
4. Modem, “Olga Sorokina” (October 19, 2010) — The 2006 meeting, archives, and clothing design after the revival — https://www.modemonline.com/modem-mag/article/964-olga-sorokina
5. Maison IRFĒ, “Olga Sorokina” — Her upbringing, the encounter with the book, and the 2008 revival — https://irfe.com/olga-sorokina/
6. British Vogue, “Couture House Maison Irfé Relaunched” (September 19, 2013) — The 2013 show and the founding family’s cooperation — https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/maison-irfe-couture-house-relaunched-olga-sorokina
7. Maison IRFĒ / Newsfile, “Maison IRFE Creates Captivating Fragrances and Gowns in NYC” (May 6, 2024) — Five centenary fragrances and collaboration with perfumers — https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207508/Maison-IRFE-Creates-Captivating-Fragrances-and-Gowns-in-NYC
8. Maison IRFĒ, “FRAGRANCE” — Dresses, doll-shaped bottles, and FranceLab — https://irfe.com/fragrance/
9. Maison IRFĒ, “FRAGRANCE ARTISANSHIP” — Perfumers’ accounts of creation, and the design of the bottles and boxes — https://irfe.com/artisanship/
10. Maison IRFĒ, “CENTIFOLIA ROSE” — Inspiration, notes, and perfumer — https://irfe.com/product/centifolia-rose/
11. Maison IRFĒ, “MARSHMALLOW MUSK” — Inspiration, notes, and perfumer — https://irfe.com/product/marshmallow-musk/
12. Maison IRFĒ, “SMOLDERING PEPPER” — Notes, perfumer, and its description as a scent for women and men — https://irfe.com/product/smoldering-pepper/
13. Maison IRFĒ, “PATCHOULI FOREVER WORN” — Inspiration, notes, and perfumer — https://irfe.com/product/patchouli-forever/
14. Maison IRFĒ, “MA FRANCE FOLIE PARISIENNE” — Inspiration, notes, and perfumer — https://irfe.com/product/irfe-ma-france-folie-parisienne-eau-de-parfum-spray-100ml/
15. Maison IRFĒ, “Saffron Leather” — https://irfe.com/product/saffron-leather/
16. Maison IRFĒ, “Mini Dolls Gift Coffret” — https://irfe.com/product/irfe-gift-coffret-5-x-10ml-bottles/
17. Maison IRFĒ, “Discovery Set” — https://irfe.com/product/discovery-set-5x3ml/
18. Maison IRFĒ, “My Britain Lord & Lady” — https://irfe.com/product/irfe-heritage-my-britain-lord-lady-eau-de-parfum-spray-100ml/
19. Maison IRFĒ, “My St. Moritz Lakeside Bliss” — https://irfe.com/product/irfe-heritage-my-st-moritz-lakeside-bliss-eau-de-parfum-spray-100ml/
20. Maison IRFĒ, “News: The IRFE Fragrance Heritage Collection (February 2026) and Maison IRFE Celebrates Fragrance Day (March 2026)” — https://irfe.com/news/