Alix Grès was "Cabochard": Wear Cabochard and Madame Grès comes to life: her fragrance as shy and complex, as persistent and irresistible as personality she must have been. 

Guy Leyssène is credited with steering Madame Grès' first fragrance "Cabochard" to succèss. He first met the designer at a dinner party in 1957. He loved perfume, but he didn't much about the business of perfume at the time. "I asked Madame Grès, why she didn't have a perfume, most of the fashion houses have their own perfume, because it makes them money" She didn't say another word but, one month later, I received a letter from her asking to see me. "Do you want to join my company to launch a perfume?" It sounds very simple but it happened just like that !

When Leyssène started work he found that the perfume he had been hired to launch was not Cabochard, but Chouda, a different fragrance which had already been composed by Guy Robert. "I was a young perfumer at the time" says Robert. "My work had caught the attention of Andrée Castanié, who was then editor of the powerful magazine "L'Officiel de la Mode et de la Couture" She introduced me to Mme Grès in 1956, saying, "Guy should make a perfume for you."

It was when Mme was invited by the Ford Foundation to visit India, to assess the potential of Indian brocades. On her return, Mme Grès told Guy Robert that she had discovered a wonderful flower with a most marvelous scent. She described it as very flowery, as rich as the scent of tuberose but warmer, with the contrast of a fresh and slightly green first note. Water Hyacinth ! So Guy Robert made several trials for her and one day she said, "That's mine!" But it was a light note and the trend was to strong chypres and - convinced by another laboratory who was knocking at her door - Madame Grès decided to launch a second fragrance at the same time "Cabochard" by Bernard Chant of IFF. From the start, Leyssène recalls that Cabochard prompted a far more favourable reaction than Chouda and after a couple of months, they decided that they would no longer push Chouda. Only five litres of perfume have been delivered and Mme Grès probably wore most of it herself.