Why did Estée Lauder choose the name Aramis? It’s a name that conjures romantic swashbucklers, noble masculinity, and a sense of classical intrigue. Taken from one of The Three Musketeers in Alexandre Dumas’ famous 1844 novel, Aramis was the refined, elegant member of the trio—religious, intellectual, and calculating. The name itself is French, pronounced AIR-uh-miss in English, though in French it’s more fluid, closer to Ah-rah-MEES. To the American ear in the 1960s, it likely sounded exotic, continental, and undeniably sophisticated.
Aramis holds a unique place in fragrance history. One of the best-selling male fragrances of all time, it surprisingly began its life as a women’s fragrance. It was launched in 1963 by Estée Lauder and was initially inspired by Cabochard (1958), a bold leather chypre for women created by the same perfumer, Bernard Chant. The DNA of Aramis—its mossy, leathery, spicy character—was rooted in Chant’s earlier creation, but adapted for a new identity.
Had it remained a women’s fragrance, Aramis would have appealed to a certain type of woman—confident, urban, and modern, unafraid to wear something strong and faintly androgynous. She would have felt a kinship with Chanel’s Cuir de Russie or the smoky, leathery chypres of the 1930s. But in 1964, just a year after its introduction, Estée Lauder made a bold pivot: Aramis was rebranded and reformulated as a men's fragrance—Lauder’s first entry into the male fragrance market.
This decision coincided with a shifting cultural landscape. The early 1960s marked the transition between the buttoned-down postwar era and the cultural explosion of the later decade. JFK had recently been assassinated. The Beatles were on the rise. Fashion was beginning to loosen up, and social norms were cracking. Men’s grooming was gaining traction as a standalone market, and Aramis was launched at the perfect moment to capitalize on this. It was marketed by Estée Lauder initially, but by 1983, it was distributed under the banner of Aramis, Inc., located at 767 Fifth Avenue in New York City—a move that further established it as a distinct entity within the Lauder brand portfolio.
