A FAMILY AFFAIR: A LEGACY OF THE AVANT-GARDE
Le Jardin Retrouvé is a French family-run perfume house founded in 1975 around the notion of the garden, a universal symbol of serenity, wellbeing, beauty, poetry and comfort in an uncertain world.
In 2017, the house was relaunched by Michel Gutsatz, son of the founders, and his artist wife Clara Feder.
Le Jardin Retrouvé's mission is to provide an authentic state of wellbeing through its fragrances and scented products. To achieve this, the fragrance formulas have been created by two renowned in-house perfumers - Yuri Gutsatz (1914-2005) and Maxence Moutte.
LE JARDIN RETROUVÉ IN A NUTSHELL
In 1975, Yuri Gutsatz, a renowned master perfumer who rejected the constraints of traditional perfumery dominated by marketing, became the first perfumer to found his own House.
In 2017, Clara Feder and Michel Gutsatz relaunched Le Jardin Retrouvé with a view to respecting the environment, while retaining Yuri's delicate olfactory formulas, his methods and his historic suppliers.
A PRECIOUS LEGACY
Yuri left us his thousands of laboratory tests, his formulas since 1935, his involvement in the Société Française des Parfumeurs, of which he was vice-president, and his formative participation in the creation of the Osmothèque (the largest olfactory archive in the world).
From Yuri to Arlette
Yuri also wrote hundreds of poems about Russia and perfume, all of which had been preserved by his wife Arlette. She was behind the 1975 logo, the product collection and the worldwide marketing of the brand.
A BEAUTIFUL SLEEP
After Yuri's death in 2005 and Arlette's in 2012, Le Jardin Retrouvé entered a dormant phase. In 2017, their son Michel and his wife Clara Feder, accompanied by perfumer Maxence Moutte, decided to revive the house by giving it a new direction. As the concept of the Garden grew, the brand identity was revisited, as were the formulas, to bring them into line with the values of the Universal Garden, synonymous with wellbeing and kindness towards oneself and the environment.
AN EXCEPTIONAL ENCOUNTER
Perfumer Maxence Moutte approached Michel and Clara at a wedding and expressed his admiration for Yuri's work. Years later, when there was talk of relaunching Le Jardin Retrouvé, the two founders called on him, as neither of them were perfumers. Thanks to this meeting, the perfumes were revived and a friendship was born. Maxence has gone on to create three fragrances for the house: Mousse Arashiyama, Osmanthe Liu Yuan and Violette Kew.
A FAMILY COINCIDENCE
Yuri's father, David Gutsatz, was a chemical engineer in Saint Petersburg who, independent of his son in France, was working on innovative formulas for synthetic ingredients essential to modern perfumery. It was only much later that Yuri learned by chance that he and his father - each without knowing what the other was doing - were at the same time (in 1934) making their visionary contribution to the perfumery world they loved so much.
A never ending story
There has been so much progress since 2017! Step by step, Clara and Michel, with the help of their team, have worked to build a vibrant, joyful brand that fully embodies the warm, inspirational atmosphere they inherited. Today, they are proud that Le Jardin Retrouvé has won the Victoires de la Beauté 2022 - Clean Category - and are even prouder to be able to offer their valued customers high-quality, sustainable fragrance products that respect the wellbeing of everyone and our beautiful planet.
