Rochas

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Perfumes Rochas SAS

logo
legal form Société par actions simplifiée
Seat Paris , FranceFranceFrance 
Branch Perfume, fashion
Website www.rochas.com/

Rochas [ rɔˈʃas ] is a French luxury goods manufacturer from Paris , which sells perfume as well as prêt-à-porter fashion and accessories , and has been part of Interparfums, Inc. since 2015, with headquarters in New York City and Paris.

Rochas was founded in 1925 by Marcel Rochas as a haute couture fashion company. In the middle of the 20th century, Marcel Rochas gave up the fashion division of the house in favor of the perfume business. Since the 1990s, in addition to perfumes, there has also been women's and men's ready- to-wear fashion from Rochas again, with interruptions .

Company history

Monsieur Rochas

Rochas was founded in 1925 as a fashion house by the lawyer Marcel Rochas (1902–1955) at 100, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. He ran the Rochas company until his death. As early as the 1930s, American Vogue gave him the nickname "Valentino of Couture Fashion" because of his physical resemblance to the then world-famous actor Rudolph Valentino .

Rochas opened its first shop in 1931 on avenue Matignon No. 12 in Paris. Customers included Carole Lombard and Marlene Dietrich as well as numerous stars from the French film industry and Hollywood . From 1937 there was already a Rochas boutique in Manhattan , which was closed in 1938 due to violations of the import tariff law. Jean Cocteau , Christian Bérard and Paul Poiret worked for Rochas . Marcel Rochas was considered a “designer of the youth” because his high-priced designs were perceived as sporty, innovative and at the same time very feminine, and he himself was the youngest among the established Parisian fashion designers. He is the wasp waists - Corset ( la Guêpière ) and the so-called Meerjungfrauen- robe (for Mae West designed) attributed. A recurring motif at Rochas was a white bird , often a dove . Rochas also developed innovations in the textile sector, such as a modern fabric for swimsuits . In addition to the success with fashion creations in the haute couture sector, Air Jeune , Audace and Avenue Matignon successfully placed three women's fragrances in 1936, whereupon investments were made in a large laboratory for fragrances. Marcel Rochas founded a separate fragrance division with Parfums Rochas in 1944 and in the same year married Helène Nelly Brignole (1927–2011), a former ballet dancer who became his muse and business partner. The most famous Rochas fragrance of this time was the Rochas Femme perfume composed in the same year by the renowned perfumer Edmond Roudnitska as a wedding present from Marcel Rochas to his wife . The bottle of this perfume, created in collaboration with René Lalique , was inspired by a corsage that Rochas once designed for Mae West. The fragrance was reissued in 1989. The Mustache line of cosmetics for men was launched in 1949 .

In 1953, Marcel Rochas himself gave up the couture division of his company in order to concentrate on perfume. However, he died unexpectedly of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1955 .

Madame Rochas

After Rochas' death, his wife Hélène Rochas continued to run the company with great success after it had been closed for a short time and developed Rochas into a renowned perfume brand. After the death of her husband, Helène Rochas moved the company headquarters to 33, Rue Francois 1er, where it remained until 2007. The perfume classic Madame Rochas was created in 1960 under Helène Rochas' direction and is named after her. She was the first woman in France to head a large company as managing director. Within a few years it had increased the company's sales tenfold. From 1969 the fragrances Monsieur Rochas and Eau de Rochas (initially: Eau de Roche ) followed; the latter is still available today. In the same year, Rochas opened a perfume production facility in Poissy .

Rochas owned by cosmetic companies

Roussel-Uclaf (Sanofi-Aventis)

In 1970 Helène Rochas sold her company for the equivalent of 40 million US dollars to the French pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf (now Sanofi-Aventis ), but returned to Rochas from 1979 to 1989 as a consultant. A sale to the American cosmetics company Helena Rubinstein had been prevented by the French state . In 1980 the Rochas cosmetics line with lipsticks , nail polish and makeup etc. was launched.

Wella

The Parfums Rochas SA was founded in 1987 by Wella acquired after Hoechst had bought 1,975 Roussel-Uclaf, and Wella portfolio with the fragrance licenses Escada , Anna Sui and Gucci combined. Under Wella, the Rochas license business with accessories such as glasses , scarves, lingerie and wristwatches , which had been built up in the early 1980s, was further expanded. In 1990, Wella revived the prêt-à-porter fashion division of Rochas with Irish designer Peter O'Brien - ultimately with little success . Nevertheless, the perfume division made up 80% of sales in the mid-1990s. In 2002 Rochas also launched a short-lived men's fashion line under license . Previously, there were only a few accessories for men, such as ties or cufflinks . Chief designer O'Brien left Rochas in 2003.

Procter & Gamble

In 2003 Rochas was taken over by Procter & Gamble after P&G had already bought Wella. After large investments and the hiring of the young designer Olivier Theyskens (* 1977), who was still recruited by Wella, in the fashion sector in the same year, sales did not increase significantly despite spectacular designs and numerous awards, so the fashion center sector did not increase significantly Was closed by P&G in 2006. Shortly before, Theyskens had received the International Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America for his work at Rochas . The customers of the sometimes extremely high-priced Rochas fashion at that time included Madonna , Nicole Kidman and Melissa Auf der Maur . Theyskens moved to Nina Ricci in 2006 . The headquarters of Parfum Rochas was relocated to Rue de Miromesnil in Paris in 2007.

At the end of 2008, P&G announced that it would once again present a women's fashion line under license in cooperation with the Italian fashion manufacturer Gibo SpA (subsidiary of the Japanese Onward Kashiyama Ltd., which also owns the Jil Sander brand ). With the Italian chief designer Marco Zanini (* 1971) - a former designer for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace - a successful new placement with high-priced women's fashion was achieved in 2009. In the men's fashion sector, there was only a license agreement for South America. Zanini was replaced at the end of 2013 by Alessandro Dell'Acqua - a former Borbonese , Malo and Brioni designer and designer of his own fashion brand. The innumerable perfumes of the house for women and men were joined by Muse de Rochas in 2011 , Les Cascades de Rochas in 2012 , Secret de Rochas in 2013 and Mademoiselle Rochas in 2017 , all women's fragrances.

Interparfums

At the beginning of 2015, the French-American perfume manufacturer Interparfums, Inc., which also owns the licenses for the perfume divisions of Lanvin , Balmain and Karl Lagerfeld , took over the entire Rochas company, including all Rochas brands, from Procter & Gamble for 108 million US dollars . Since then, the Rochas offices have been located in the Interparfums headquarters on the Champs-Elysées . Interparfums continued the women's fashion under Dell'Acquas direction and launched a complete Rochas men's fashion collection including accessories for the autumn / winter 2017/18 season with the French designer Béatrice Ferrant, who also designs for her own fashion brand, which was presented in January 2017 . The men's spring / summer 2018 collection presented in June 2017 was not produced and Ferrant left the company. In June 2018 Rochas announced that the men's fashion division would be continued under license with Gibo / Onward for the autumn / winter 2019/20 season with designer Federico Curradi - owner of his own men's fashion brand and previously working for Ermanno Scervino, Roberto Cavalli and Iceberg . For women, jewelry, sunglasses and wristwatches are also offered under license. In December 2019 it was announced that Dell'Acqua was leaving the company. Dell'Acqua's last women's collection for Rochas was presented in February 2020 as part of Paris Fashion Week .

Perfume

Marcel Rochas launched the women's fragrances Air Jeune , Audace and Avenue Matignon in 1936 , which were only sold in Rochas boutiques and were discontinued during the Second World War. In 1944, when Parfums Rochas SA was founded, the women's perfume Rochas Femme by the perfumer Edmond Routniska followed. With Routniska, Rochas brought the perfumes Mousseline , Mouche and Rose onto the market until 1949 . The company's first men's fragrance, Mustache ( mustache ), was launched in 1949. Although Marcel Rochas put the fashion division of his company on hold in 1953 to concentrate on the perfume business, he died unexpectedly in 1953, so that the first perfume since the Rochas men's fragrance was launched with Madame Rochas in 1960 by his widow Helène. This women's fragrance was designed by the perfumer Guy Robert, whose uncle Henri Robert was the chief perfumer at Chanel . Rochas Femme and Madame Rochas were reissued by Wella in 1989. Helène Rochas launched the men's fragrance Monsieur Rochas in 1969 and the women's version of Eau (de) Rochas in 1969 . In 1993, Wella added a men's version to the latter and has since varied several times ( Reflets , Fraîche , Escapade ). Between 1970 and 1987 Roussel-Uclaf created other fragrances with Mystère , Macassar (men), Byzance and Lumière , which were finally discontinued. During the time of Wella, fragrances named Tocade (1994), Byzantine (1995), Tocadilly (1997), Alchimie (1998), Absolu (2002, with later variations) and the men's fragrances Rochas Man (1999, with later variations) were launched. and Aquaman (2001) with the women's counterpart Aquawoman (2002). After the takeover by P&G, perfumer Jean-Michel Duriez followed perfumes such as Poupée (2004), Désir (2007), Soleil (2008), Eau Sensuelle (2009), Muse (2011), Les Cascades (2012), Secret ( 2013) and for Messrs. Lui (2003) and Désir (2007). Finally, Interparfums kept the classics Rochas Femme , Madame Rochas , Tocade , Eau de Rochas (including variations), Eau Sensuelle , Secret de Rochas as well as the men's fragrances Rochas Man and Eau de Rochas pour Homme in their range and also launched the women's fragrances Mademoiselle Rochas and Lumière in 2017 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Story of ROCHAS - Birth of a Myth youtube.com, February 20, 2017 [Video]
  2. ↑ Rochas relaunches Mode , textilwirtschaft.de, October 9, 2008.
  3. ^ P&G Pact to Reopen Rochas Fashion House , wsj.com, October 7, 2008.
  4. ↑ Rochas relaunches menswear with Béatrice Ferrant fashionnetwork.com, September 12, 2016
  5. ↑ Rochas takes over Interparfums ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2015 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. , textilwirtschaft.de, March 19, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.textilwirtschaft.de
  6. ↑ Rochas wants to grow with menswear textilwirtschaft.de, June 15, 2017
  7. ↑ Rochas - Menswear Autumn / Winter 2017/18 presentation in Paris fashionnetwork.com, January 20, 2017
  8. ↑ Onward receives Rochas Homme license vogue.de, November 22, 2017
  9. ↑ Rochas appoints Federico Curradi as creative director for menswear vogue.de, June 20, 2018
  10. ↑ Steff Yotka: Alessandro Dell'Acqua Departs Rochas. Retrieved April 18, 2020 (English).