Kiko Milano
Italian high-street cosmetics with a fragrance sideline.
Kiko Milano was founded in Bergamo, Italy in 1997 by Antonio and Stefano Percassi, and it grew from a single regional cosmetics brand into one of Europe's largest accessible beauty retailers, operating more than 1,100 stores across 66 countries by the mid-2020s. In 2024, the majority stake was acquired by L Catterton, the LVMH-backed private equity firm, in a transaction that valued the business at several hundred million euros. Fragrances represent a secondary category within Kiko's offer, sitting alongside makeup, skincare, and body care as part of a broad beauty portfolio designed for the high-street shopper. The perfume line follows the house's general philosophy of delivering products that resemble prestige-market counterparts at significantly lower prices, with design and formulation handled from Milan. No named perfumers are credited, in keeping with the brand's product-led rather than artisan-led model. Kiko occupies a specific cultural niche: the Italian-designed cosmetics brand that made professional-quality finishes accessible to the teenager with a modest budget. Its fragrance sideline serves that same customer — someone who wants to wear something Italian-sounding and well-packaged without paying department-store prices.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
