Diptyque!
BOULEVARD SAINT-GERMAN
The first boutique appears in Paris, at number 34 of
Boulevard Saint-German, facing the street.
A door and two symmetrical showcases on the sides, frame ideal for the "beautiful shop" with a perfect name, written as on the pediment of an ancient temple: Diptyque.
A unique story
The company was founded in 1961 by Desmond Knox-Leet, Christiane Gautrot and Yves Coueslant.
The three meet through mutual friends: Christiane has just finished fine arts school, Desmond paints and together they design some patterns for fabrics and wallpapers for elegant English homes, when they meet Yves, who escaped a banking career to devote himself to theater. They decide to open a "shop of beautiful things", a concept store that was considered a bazaar at the time. But at 34 Boulevard Saint-German, it overwhelms the geography of Parisian elegance creating a new space, unusual but destined to work.
In 1964 the company took its first steps in the Beauty universe with some products from England: the eau de toilette by Penhaligon's, a prestigious British perfume house, the curious bath vinegar and Violet Oatmeal, a curious oatmeal mask proposed from Rimmel. According to Diptyque, cosmetics is already starting to spread.
In 1968, Diptyque presents its first eau de toilette, called L'Eau. From that moment, it all began.
Factory... of images
Diptyque expresses itself through fragrances and the senses. The founders – who were a painter, an interior architect and a theater scriptwriter before founding Diptyque – they enrich their fragrances with images. Each of their compositions derives from an artistic approach, each detail has a meaning, each image tells a journey.
Desmond Knox-Leet, the head alchemist, elaborates his magic potions by conceiving together the fragrance and the decorative motif that will accompany it, a sort of identity card of the perfume executed with a precise line. The same motif will also be encountered on the label. With the multiplication of eau de toilettes, so too do the images, including Art Nouveau illustrations, stylized oriental visions, the deepest and most luxuriant Asian jungle and Mediterranean orchards.
