The spirit of a decade
The 1929 crash ruined part of the American clientele of Parisian couturiers. Jean Patou took the opposite tack: Joy, launched in 1930 and composed by Henri Alméras, was presented as "the costliest perfume in the world" because of its wealth of jasmine and rose. In 1933, Jacques Guerlain created Vol de Nuit, a tribute to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novel and to the young age of aviation, with a green, woody base built on galbanum and moss. In 1937, Elsa Schiaparelli launched Shocking, whose bottle, inspired by a dressmaker's bust, reflected the links between fashion and surrealism. Perfumery remained mostly the domain of Parisian houses, and compositions grew denser, preparing the great chypres and florals of the post-war period that would follow.