Molyneux
A quieter Paris classicism, kept in print.
Molyneux is a Paris fragrance house founded in 1925 by the British-born couturier Edward Molyneux, who had opened his fashion atelier on rue Royale a few years earlier. Its first scent, Le Numéro Cinq, arrived the same year as Chanel's now-more-famous No. 5 — the two designers reputedly agreed to launch competing fives and let history sort them out. Molyneux's reputation, if quieter, became built on aldehydic florals, refined chypres, and the masculine Vivre and Captain Molyneux, named for the founder's wartime rank. The couture line has long been dormant, but the perfume name continues under the French house Parfums Berdoues, which keeps a handful of the historical compositions in production. The current catalogue trades on classical Parisian poise rather than reinvention.
Releases
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.
