Audrey Hepburn A-Z: P is for...
P is for...Perfume!
In 1957, Audrey was gifted a personal perfume scent from her dear friend, Hubert de Givenchy. L'Interdit, or 'Forbidden' was strictly for Audrey's use only in that first year.
I know next to nothing about perfume (I'm allergic, sadly!), but Fragrantica says that the original formula was the following: "Top notes are aldehydes, spices, mandarin orange, peach, bergamot and strawberry; middle notes are iris, violet, narcissus, orris root, jasmine, ylang ylang, lily-of-the-valley, and rose; base notes are sandalwood, amber, musk, benzoin, vetiver and tonka bean."
Audrey had been gifted the scent in January 1957, and when she saw the gift, she was said to have exclaimed, "Mais, c'est interdit!" when she saw just how lavish it was.
Audrey had exclusive use of L'Interdit for the first year, but soon after, Givenchy began to market the perfume and used her image in the advertising. The enticement of wearing something that was once solely Audrey's scent would've been more than enough for some to rush out and buy Givenchy's first perfume.
It also marked the first time a celebrity had appeared in a perfume advertisement (Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, et al. have Audrey to thank for opening this door!).
By the early '60s though, as Givenchy continued to make money on the perfume and use of Audrey's image, Audrey's husband, Mel Ferrer, was annoyed.
In a meeting with Audrey's publicist to talk about her career (something that Mel was inordinately invested in), Mel was reportedly furious that not only did Audrey buy Givenchy clothing at regular price, but she had to buy her own formerly-exclusive perfume at retail price. Mel told Henry Rogers that he wanted Audrey to receive an honorarium from Givenchy for use of her image moving forward.
It wasn't that Givenchy wasn't willing to pay Audrey for use of her image, it was that Audrey didn't expect him, or want him to. She viewed it as a friend helping another friend. And when she found out that Mel and Henry had gone behind her back like this, she was furious.
"Neither of you seem to understand. I don't want anything from Hubert. I don’t need his money—he’s my friend," she said. "If I've helped him build his perfume business, then that's exactly what one friend should do for another. If someone else offered me a million dollars to endorse a perfume, I wouldn't do it—but Hubert is my friend. I don't want anything. Yes, I even want to walk into a drugstore and buy the perfume at retail price."
Unfortunately for Henry Rogers, this incident and trying to goad the head of the Cannes Film Festival into creating a fake award for Audrey to accept in order to secure her attendance at the festival (both at the behest of Mel Ferrer, it must be said), culminated in Audrey firing him as her publicist, though they remained friends afterwards.
L'Interdit was discontinued in the '90s, Audrey's image still attached to it, but was revived in 2018 with Rooney Mara, an actress who bares a striking resemblance to Audrey (seriously, go watch Carol and report back) and shares her love of Givenchy, as the face of the scent.
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