EXCLUSIVE: Moncler’s First Fragrances Revealed
PARIS — Like its fashion, Moncler’s first fragrances — for women and for men — mix high-tech and luxurious heritage elements.
Called Moncler Pour Femme and Moncler Pour Homme, the scents — due out starting Tuesday — take a cue from nature, exploration and discovery, longstanding key facets of the high-end sportswear brand.
More from WWD
“The first basic idea was to take the form of a flask that you can find when people are in the mountains,” explained Philippe Benacin, chairman and chief executive officer of Interparfums SA, which holds Moncler’s fragrance license. He added that in fact, mountains and wide open spaces inspired the whole project.
Moncler’s 150-ml., refillable bottle comes with a rectangular LED screen on its middle, allowing for illuminated messages in scrolling red letters to be displayed. These can be personalized with a Bluetooth-powered smartphone application.
The bottles’ “borraccia” shape is meant to reflect the house’s sporty roots, and the flacon’s silver-colored ribbing nods to Moncler down jackets’ quilting.
While the women’s bottle includes clear glass through which the fragrance’s amber juice can be seen and a white Moncler tag, the men’s version is topped with a silver dipped effect and a black branded label. The two bottles’ shapes differ slightly, with the iteration for women more rounded at the base.
Outer packaging comes in matte cardboard with Moncler’s logo and the brand’s signature felted patch.
Fragrance is the newest product category for the Italian brand, which spans jackets, ready-to-wear and accessories.
Innovation was important for the perfume project.
“When you enter a Moncler store, you sense innovation. You feel like you are at the forefront of many things,” said Benacin.
The Moncler Genius project, for instance, is a creative hub involving guest designers.
Each Moncler eau de parfum contains a Mountain Woods accord, which is exclusive to the brand and was formulated by Givaudan perfumers. The scents contain a mélange of natural and high-tech ingredients.
“The Mountain Woods accord is the common thread between the women’s and men’s fragrance,” said perfumer Nisrine Grillié, in a statement. “For its woody, outdoors feeling, we used cedarwood. For the stylish sophistication of the house, we worked with a saturation of amber. Together with Antoine Maisondieu, we added sandalwood for its comforting, creamy warmth.”
Moncler Pour Femme is a woody musky fragrance conceived by Grillié and Quentin Bisch. The scent’s top includes a “Powdery Snow” accord.
“You sense the very wide spaces, pure air,” said Benacin.
“Quentin Bisch and myself wanted to keep the freshness and minerality of snow with the warm, comforting sensuality of wood notes,” continued Grillié. “Moncler Pour Femme needed to smell powdery like fresh snow, but with a feeling that you really want to wrap yourself up in it. Think of fresh powder on a mountain top with the sunlight shining through the snowflakes — that is the exclusive Powdery Snow accord we created for this scent.”
Other notes include Italian bergamot, jasmine sambac and heliotrope, plus the Mountain Woods accord, which has amber, cedarwood and sandalwood notes that fuse with a natural vanillin.
Moncler Pour Homme is a woody aromatic created by Maisondieu and Christophe Raynaud that’s meant to channel an alpine forest’s beauty with a heady dose of woody notes. Here, Moncler’s exclusive Alpine Green accord is combined with a clary sage note.
Courtesy of Interparfums
“The Alpine Green accord is a very refined top note, before Moncler Pour Homme enters into the more raw, woody elements of the heart and base notes,” said Maisondieu. “The cedarwood can be quite dry, so the sandalwood envelops the cedarwood, and the musk creates a sort of cushion for it. The vetiver is a very complex wood note. It is both fresh and woody — it has citrus elements, too, and a lot of sophistication.”
The Mountain Woods accord, accented more in the men’s scent, was added for a cocooning, earthy drydown that’s fused with vetiver.
“For Christophe Raynaud and I, the idea was to play that against the fresh, green element of the Alpine Green accord with aromatic touches of pine resin, sage and cypress,” continued Maisondieu. “To that effect, Moncler Pour Homme is very modern in a way that it has a long drydown. It doesn’t really follow the formal construction of a traditional perfume.”
Moncler chairman and CEO Remo Ruffini and his team worked closely with Interparfums on the fragrances’ creation process.
Benacin and Ruffini had been in touch a long time ago about a possible fragrance tie-in, but talks started in earnest only a few years ago.
The Moncler fragrances will launch first on Tuesday in tight distribution of about 200 doors, with three or four doors per country, and online. In the U.S., that will be at Bloomingdale’s and in the U.K., at Selfridges, for instance. About 50 Moncler boutiques are to introduce the scents, as well, before a wider rollout in early next year, when between 2,000 and 3,000 points of sale are to carry the fragrances.
The 150-ml. EDP has a suggested retail price of 180 euros; the 100-ml. EDP of 120 euros, and the 60-ml. EDP of 80 euros.
Interparfums executives would not discuss projections, but industry sources estimate the Moncler perfumes could generate 100 million euros in retail sales during their first year on the market.
Advertising for them will break in January.
In June 2020, it was announced that Moncler had inked a worldwide license with Interparfums SA for the production and distribution of branded perfumes and fragrance-related products. The license will expire on Dec. 31, 2026, but has the potential for a five-year extension.
Under the agreement, the products will be distributed in Moncler monobrand stores as well as select department stores, specialty store and travel-retail shops.
Moncler was founded in 1952 in Grenoble, France, and is now based in Italy. Ruffini took over the company in 2003. It manufactures and distributes clothing and accessories through Moncler boutiques, plus department stores and multibrand doors.
Interparfums was founded by Philippe Benacin and Jean Madar in 1982. The prestige fragrance brands it develops, manufactures and distributes include Boucheron, Coach, Jimmy Choo, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels, among others. Interparfums owns Lanvin fragrances and Maison Rochas, both its fashion and perfume businesses.
FOR MORE, SEE:
Moncler Breaks Record with Number of Mondogenius Views
Moncler’s Remo Ruffini on Building a Community
U.S., China and Digital Channel Boost Moncler Profits, Sales in First Half
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
