How Lalique Started Making Perfume Bottles: Coty

How did Lalique start making perfume bottles?

The short answer

Through the perfumer François Coty. Lalique says Coty was so impressed by René Lalique's designs that he asked him to work for the perfume industry; the house dates the partnership to 1907 and the V&A dates Coty's first bottle commission to 1908. The Musée Lalique calls the collaboration a powerful springboard for his career as a glassmaker.

By the Fragnatique team2 min read5 sourcesUpdated 11 November 2026

Key facts

1885René Lalique takes over a Paris jewellery workshop.
1906François Coty sets out his idea of the best product in a perfect container.
1907 to 1908Coty asks Lalique to design perfume bottles; Cyclamen is the first, made at Baccarat.
Combs-la-VilleThe glassworks Lalique rented in the autumn of 1908.
1917Coty's Chypre gives a whole perfume family its name.
1992Marie-Claude Lalique launches Lalique de Lalique.

Was René Lalique a jeweller before he made glass?

Yes. Lalique's own history says he apprenticed with the jeweller Louis Aucoc, made his name as an independent designer for houses such as Jacta, Cartier and Boucheron, and in 1885 took over the Paris workshop of jeweller Jules Destape. He already set enamel and glass in his jewels, side by side with gold, opals, diamonds and pearls, and the house calls 1900 the crowning moment of his career as a jeweller.

What was the first Lalique bottle for Coty?

The V&A says the first commission was for the perfume Cyclamen and that the first production was made at Baccarat. In the autumn of 1908 Lalique rented a glassworks at Combs-la-Ville. The Musée Lalique tells it from Coty's side: after commissioning Baccarat for his first bottles, he enlisted Lalique, and points to the L'Effleurt bottle of around 1908.

Why did François Coty care so much about bottles?

He put the container at the heart of his plan. In 1906, as the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission records, Coty said: “Give a woman the best product you can compound, present it in a perfect container.” In 1910 he had Lalique design the glass windows of his Fifth Avenue building, a landmark since 1985. Coty also named a family: the French perfumers' society traces chypre to his 1917 Chypre of oak moss, labdanum, patchouli and bergamot.

Does Lalique make its own perfume?

Yes, though it came much later. Lalique says that in 1992 Marie-Claude Lalique, René's granddaughter, created the fragrance Lalique de Lalique and launched Lalique Parfums. The house sums up its founder's path in one line: the Art Nouveau master jeweller was to become an Art Deco master glassmaker.

The full storyHow François Coty Helped Turn René Lalique Into a Glassmaker8 min read in the Fragnatique Journal

Sources

Primary sources only. Every statement on this page restates one of them, read by the Fragnatique team.