Bruno Cottard, Vice President, Jean Patou

It was a kind of sleeping beauty. Since its acquisition by Procter & Gamble, the brand had gradually slipped off the radar of beautiful fragrance lovers. Then bought by British company Designer Parfums [1] in July 2011, Jean Patou now offers Joy Forever a modernized reinterpretation of the brand’s legendary fragrance Joy and relaunches three of its previous creations, Chaldée (1927), Eau de Patou (1976) and Patou pour Homme (1980).

The brand’s portfolio was so wealthy that we deemed not necessary to initiate a completely new creation," explained Bruno Cottards, Vice President.

With this in mind, Designer Parfums chose to reinvent the brand by focusing its efforts on two issues:

 the modernization of Joy , the best known and most emblematic fragrance of the brand, by offering a version for today’s women,
 the revival of some 50 fragrances created by Jean Patou, with the aim to launch three new fragrances per year.

It took some time to restart the brand, which had been integrated into a major industry giant and thus needed some reorganisation. “In particular, we had to fully reorganise the supply chain," said Bruno Cottards.

Targeting younger women

Thomas Fontaine

The tricky task consisting in reviving the spirit of Joy into a new juice was entrusted to Thomas Fontaine, the new perfumer of this prestigious fragrance house where famous names such as Henri Alméras, Henri Giboulet, Jean Kerléo, and Jean-Michel Duriez have been working.

With Joy Forever, Thomas Fontaine launches a fragrance “more accessible and better adapted to contemporary lifestyles." Top notes feature bergamot and mandarin with galbanum. The heart is made of marigold, rose de Mai and jasmine echo Joy but are complemented by iris and orange flower notes. Base notes feature: cedar-wood, sandalwood, amber and white musks.

"Thus, the cohabitation of Joy’s rose and jasmine is made more easily accessible. Joy Forever is a kind of initiation, which then may lead the consumer to test the original fragrance,” said Thomas Fontaine.

Joy Forever comes into three sizes (30ml, 50ml and 75ml). It will be launched in the selective distribution network in approximately 1,000 points of sales in France. Joy Forever’s bottle was developed by Verreries Brosse, the cap by RPC France and the secondary cardboard packaging by Landerer (Autajon group).

Convincing connoisseurs

Jean Patou is also reintroducing three of its classic fragrances, which form the first part of its Heritage collection, thus attempting to reconnect with its roots and the tradition of French haute perfumery, but targeting the community perfumery enthusiasts.

The three fragrances - Chaldée, Eau de Patou and Patou pour Homme - will be available in 100 ml bottles from November in France, in niche and high end perfumeries and at Le Printemps.

The bottles of the Heritage collection were made by Saverglass, the wooden caps by Technotraf, the pumps were provided by Aptar and the secondary packaging cartons were manufactured by Prestige Packaging Industries (PPI).