Born in 1898 to a prominent banking family in Yverdon, Switzerland, Robert Piguet’s passion for fashion design demonstrated itself early on. At 17, in the face of heavy opposition from family, he left Yverdon for Paris where he studied under the legendary houses of Redfern and Poiret.

 Working with perfumer Germaine Cellier in the late ‘40s, it was Piguet’s Bandit and Fracas that acted as the watershed to a new era in perfumery. These were said to “have a particular feel very characteristic of his trademarks: Strict adherence to good taste, true luxury, a horror of the commonplace and an innate sense of seduction.”