Creed (company)

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Creed

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founding 1760
Seat
Branch Originally a men's clothing maker, now a perfumery retailer
Website www.creedfragrances.co.uk

Creed is a French perfume manufacturer and former tailor and gentlemen's outfitter from London . The company refers to a more than 250-year-old family tradition in the 7th generation, whereby there is no company continuity between today's perfume company and the fashion company of that time.

history

In 1760 the tailor James Creed (1710–1798) moved from Leicester to London. This is the beginning of the Creed custom tailoring dynasty. The house gained its reputation from the middle of the 19th century under Henry Creed (1824–1914) through his services for the famous dandy d'Orsay, Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie of France. There are "royal warrants" for riding clothing and other textiles and leather goods. Among other things, the coat of the son Napoleon III. Tailored by Henry Creed, the design was still in the possession of his grandson, Charles Creed (1909–1966). In the years that followed, the house developed into a purveyor to the court of many European royal families as well as the nobility and celebrities from politics and culture. His most exclusive customers included Queen Victoria , Emperor Napoleon III. and his wife Eugénie also the Spanish Queen Christine. The owner Henry Creed was awarded the title of purveyor to the court as a tailor in London. However, there is no historical evidence for Creed perfumes, both press reports and corporate advertising from the 19th century refer exclusively to clothing. Creed is a well-known name in fashion history, but in contrast to producers with a documented history ( Farina Gegenüber , Guerlain , Houbigant , Lubin etc. pp.), It does not play a role in perfume history .

Through d'Orsay, Creed established contacts with the French nobility and, in partnership with a Mr. Cumberland, settled in Paris in 1850, where the company's headquarters are still located today. Olivier Henry Creed is the sixth generation to run the company. It can be assumed that he used the rich history of the house to reposition the company as a perfume brand in an effective way. The big breakthrough came in 1986 with the innovative Green Irish Tweed, which clearly bears the signature of the famous perfumer Pierre Bourdon (a few years later, he created the closely related "Cool Water" for Davidoff, one of the leading fragrances of the 1990s).

The dating of many Creed fragrances is anachronistic based on their composition, and many references to celebrities are rumored. Royal English Leather (allegedly 1781) and Tabarôme Private Collection (allegedly 1875) are stylistically and chemically z. B. typical fragrances of the 1920s, not the 18th or 19th century. They are either newer perfumes designed in a deliberate retro-romance or were commissioned by the company in small numbers as purchase items or gifts for Creed's private customers. Octavian Coifan identified Royal English Leather as an ingenious variation of Coty's L'Origan, the formula of which has been completely incorporated into the leather scent. This points to a very talented and history-conscious perfumer or even to Coty himself, who also created the Knize Ten fragrance for the Viennese tailor Knize in 1924 .

The heads of the company were:

  • James Creed (born 1710)
  • Henry Creed (born 1765)
  • Henry Creed II (1824-1914)
  • Henry Creed III (born 1863)
  • James Henry Creed (born 1904)
  • Olivier Creed (born 1943)
  • Erwin Creed (born 1980)

Famous clientele

Creed on Madison Avenue in New York

In addition to members of the nobility, especially from the last century, stars from film and music were among the customers. The best-known were and still include: Marlene Dietrich , Cary Grant , Frank Sinatra , Gary Cooper , Paul Newman , Robert Redford , Romy Schneider , Madonna , David Bowie , Michael Jackson and Julia Roberts .

useful information

  • Creed produces perfumes on order that are only produced for the client for five years.
  • The spy Mata Hari wore a creed costume when she was shot.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Creed: Maid to Measure. London 1961.
  2. ↑ Handbook of the Supreme Court and the Court of His K. and K. Apostolic Majesty . Kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei , Vienna 1899, p. 361 .
  3. ↑ http://perfumedpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/06/making-history-iii-usable-pasts-of.html
  4. ↑ Luca Turin: Review of Green Irish Tweed. In: Turin and Sanchez: Perfumes: The Guide. New York 2008.
  5. ↑ http://1000fragrances.blogspot.com/2008/12/royal-english-leather-creed.html ( Memento from September 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.creedboutique.com
  7. ↑ Stevenson: The History of Fashion. Haupt, Bern et al. 2011, p. 43.

Web links