Mitsouko

Mitsouko
Fragrance by Guerlain
Type	Women's fragrance
Released	1919
Label	Guerlain

Mitsouko is a 1919 perfume by Guerlain. Its name is derived from the French transliteration of a Japanese female personal name Mitsuko.^[1] It is a fruity chypre whose top notes include bergamot, its middle notes peach, rose, iris, clove, and jasmine, and its base notes vetiver, oakmoss, and labdanum.^[2][3]

History[]

Mitsouko was created by perfumer Jacques Guerlain in 1919. The perfume has remained continuously available ever since.^[2]

Mitsouko is preserved in its original 1919 formulation in the archives of the Osmothèque, donated to the collection by Thierry Wasser.^[4] It has been re-formulated several times in the modern era.^[5] It was a favorite fragrance of Charlie Chaplin, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Harlow, Sergei Diaghilev, and Anais Nin.^[6]

Name[]

There is no definitive information on the origin of the name. One account of the origin of the name is that it was inspired by the name of the heroine of Claude Farrère's novel La bataille (The Battle). The novel is set in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, and chronicles a fictional amour fou between a British Navy Officer and one "Mitsouko," the wife of Fleet Admiral Marquis Yorisaka. Both Yorisaka and the British officer sail to war, and Mitsouko awaits with reserve to see which of the two will return alive to her.^[7]

The other possibility is that it was inspired by the story of Mitsuko Aoyama, the mother of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi.

References[]