Founded in 1903 by the couturière Madeleine Premet, Maison Premet emerged during one of the most transformative periods in Parisian fashion history. By 1911, the house had established itself at the prestigious Place Vendôme, placing it among the elite couture establishments of prewar Paris. Premet herself was considered strikingly modern for her era. Long before the garçonne silhouette became fully synonymous with the Jazz Age, she championed streamlined, youthful fashions that abandoned the heavy corseted opulence of the Belle Époque. Her cropped “La Garçonne” hairstyle and deceptively simple boyish dresses embodied the liberated woman of the 1920s — independent, urbane, and subtly provocative. Unlike the theatrical ornamentation favored by some contemporaries, Premet’s aesthetic was rooted in restraint and movement, a philosophy that would naturally extend into her perfumes.
When the house launched Parfums Premet in 1924, the fragrances reflected this same duality of simplicity and intrigue. They were neither aggressively extravagant nor overtly sentimental. Instead, they cultivated an understated mystery — elegant yet elusive. Contemporary descriptions emphasized precisely this quality. In a 1926 newspaper interview, Madame Charlotte Rhevil, directrice of Maison Premet, explained that the perfumes represented “the simple gamut of feminine personality,” yet each carried “a whiff of mystery,” which she described as the essence of feminine allure. Her remarks reveal how carefully the house positioned its fragrances: not merely as fashionable accessories, but as extensions of feminine identity and atmosphere. Even the packaging was conceived as part of the seduction. Rhevil singled out the striking red plaid presentation case of L’Étrange Inconnu, suggesting that every object surrounding a woman should contribute harmoniously to her charm and environment.
The fragrance history of the house is particularly fascinating because it bridges the refined prewar perfume tradition and the sleek modernism of the interwar years. Early releases such as 12-34 de Premet (1915) and Clo-Clo (1917) appeared during a period when French perfumery was shifting away from the heavy floral bouquets of the Edwardian era toward more abstract compositions. Clo-Clo was especially notable for being presented in a Baccarat crystal flacon, design number 360, demonstrating that even in its early years the house aligned itself with luxurious decorative arts craftsmanship. In 1925, Clo-Clo was reinvented and renamed L’Étrange Inconnu (“The Strange Unknown”), a title perfectly suited to the era’s fascination with psychological intrigue, exoticism, and enigmatic femininity. The very name evokes the image of the modern Parisienne — alluring precisely because she remains unknowable.
Other fragrances in the line reveal the house’s responsiveness to contemporary tastes. Le Secret de Premet, introduced around 1930, was described in Femina magazine as a modern, highly tenacious perfume distinguished by the daring use of tobacco. Tobacco notes in perfumery during this period were considered unusually sophisticated and slightly transgressive, lending warmth, dryness, and a faintly smoky sensuality that contrasted sharply with conventional floral perfumes. Combined with woods and florals, the fragrance likely possessed the polished, abstract complexity associated with early aldehydic perfumes of the late 1920s and early 1930s. By contrast, Pour un Oui (“For a Yes”) embodied freshness and luminous femininity through an emphasis on jasmine. The juxtaposition of these two perfumes — one smoky, enigmatic, and modern; the other bright, floral, and effortless — perfectly encapsulated the broad emotional spectrum the house sought to express.
The packaging for these later fragrances illustrates how deeply Premet embraced Art Deco aesthetics. Femina noted that both perfumes shared identical presentation styles except for their box colors: blue speckled paper for Le Secret de Premet and green speckled paper for Pour un Oui. The bottles themselves featured a rounded fan-shape, a modern silhouette topped with chrome metal caps, while triangular metal labels adorned the front faces. These details reflect the machine-age elegance that dominated luxury design in the early 1930s. Chrome accents, geometric forms, and minimized packaging volumes mirrored broader cultural trends toward efficiency, modernity, and streamlined sophistication. Even the observation that the case size had been reduced “to meet the taste of the day” reveals how dramatically aesthetic values had shifted from the elaborate oversized perfume presentations of the 1910s toward compact modern chic.
The broader Premet fragrance catalogue paints a portrait of a house deeply attuned to fashion, mood, and atmosphere. Names such as Brise Impériale, La Colonne Vendôme, Silhouette, Pourpre, Gardenia, and Tanagra suggest inspirations ranging from classical antiquity to Parisian architecture and feminine form. The inclusion of Cuir de Russie in 1930 placed the house within the fashionable fascination for smoky leather perfumes inspired by Russian cavalry leather — a style associated with sophistication, aristocratic adventure, and cosmopolitan glamour. Like the couture of Madeleine Premet herself, the perfumes balanced elegance with modernity, restraint with seduction. Today, Parfums Premet survives largely as a forgotten but remarkably evocative fragment of interwar French luxury culture — one that captured the spirit of the emancipated modern woman through both scent and style.
Parfums Premet fragrance list:
- 1915 12-34 de Premet
- 1917 Clo-Clo (Presented in a flacon by Cristalleries de Baccarat design #360)
- 1920 La Colonne Vendome
- 1924 Brise Impériale
- 1925 Étrange Inconnu (This is the re-branded fragrance 'Clo-Clo')
- 1925 Le Secret de Premet (an aldehydic woody, tobacco floral)
- 1930 Pour un Oui (a fresh floral, dominant jasmine note)
- 1930 Cuir de Russie
- 1930 Silhouette
- 1930 Pourpre
- 1930 Gardenia
- Tanagra
c1927 ad
images: drouot & worthpoint as well as my own.