Lightyears Collection
Amour Amour
Jean Patou
(1925)

Click on image to enlarge Amour Amour perfume by Jean Patou.

Amour Amour, released in 1925, was Jean Patou's first perfume and one member of a three fragrance collection created for Patou by perfumer Henri Alméras: Amour Amour, Que Sais-je, and Adieu Sagesse. Two contrasting stories have accompanied these fragrances. The first and most plausable, it that together they tell a love story — Amour Amour, the beginning of an affair; Que sais-je, what's happening? (things are getting serious!), and Adieu Sagess, goodby wisdom (throw away all restraints!).

The second and less romantic version is that Amour Amour was intended for blondes, Que Sais-je for brunettes and Adieu Sagesse for redheads.

Spanish perfumer, Henri Alméras, who had worked for Chiris at Grasse and had created a number of fragrances for Paul Poiret's Parfums de Rosine, was hired by Patou to be his in-house perfumer and factory supervisor. In addition to Amour Amour and its sister fragrances, Alméas created manyother freagrances fo Patou, the most famous of which being Joy (1931).

It is said, however, that Alméas was inclined to devote more of his time to his role as factory manager than to his role as perfumer — in spire of the urgings from Patou, his boss, to create new perfumes.

It is said that some of Alméras's original inspiration came from his studies of perfumer Robert Bienaimé's Quelques Fleurs, launched by Houbigant in 1912 and credited with being the first perfume to make use of aldehyde C-12 MNA.

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