PARIS — Perfumer Jean Kerléo, who served as Jean Patou’s in-house perfumer for more than three decades and cofounded of the Osmothèque world scent archive, has died at the age of 93.
His passing was confirmed by the Osmothèque, for which he served as president until 2008.
Kerléo was Patou’s perfumer from 1967 to 1998. He is the man who sniffed out the brand’s 1000 fragrance, the exotic, numbered women’s scent launched in 1972. His directive for that was to make the perfume something totally different from Joy.
For the Patou perfume Liberté, Kerléo was inspired by the work of Christian Lacroix, who in 1986 was the fashion brand’s designer, stirring up the French collections with his unusual creations.
Kerléo also dreamed up Sublime for the house.
In a WWD article dated Sept. 12, 1986, he was quoted as saying: “My job is to create something beautiful. I have to build something like a musician or a painter, create something in accordance with the quality of the haute couture of Patou.”
He also said of his profession: “Few people are able to choose on first smell whether a fragrance is good because it changes so much on an individual’s skin. But the perfumer’s passion is to create something, to realize a real harmony. The best fragrance, of course, is a carrier of emotion. It must diffuse who you are.”
Kerléo resisted being labeled as a “nose,” calling it “an indecorous” word journalists made up for “parfums createurs.”
Guy de Mouy and Jean Kerléo
George Chinsee/ Fairchild Archive
Kerléo also signed fragrances for Yohji Yamamoto, after the Japanese designer inked a licensing deal with Jean Patou in 1994. The hitch? Yamamoto didn’t like perfume.
“He wanted it to smell like nothing,” Kerléo said in a WWD article dated July 12, 1996.
But when the perfumer flew to Tokyo with an array of scents, Yamamoto ended up preferring the stonger ones with more personality. The result was a fragrance called Yohji.
Kerléo mixed others for the brand subsequently, as well as for another fashion brand licensed to Patou – Lacoste.
Kerléo was born on Feb. 24, 1932, in Guiclan, France. In 1955, he began working for Helena Rubinstein, where he discovered the art of perfumery and remained for 12 years.
In 1965, Kerléo received the Prix des Parfumeurs in France. He was the Society of French Perfumers’ president between 1976 and 1979 and was bestowed the Prix d’Honneur François Coty in 2001.
Kerléo cofounded the Osmothéque, a nonprofit organization, in 1990. Today, it represents more than 3,200 perfumers, including 400 that are no longer on the market.
A funeral will be held for Kerléo on Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Notre Dame de Croas-Batz church in Roscoff, France.
