Hermès's First Perfume: Eau d'Hermès, 1951

What was Hermès's first perfume?

The short answer

Hermès's first perfume was Eau d'Hermès, created in 1951 by perfumer Edmond Roudnitska. Hermès calls it the house's very first fragrance and quotes Roudnitska describing it as “the inside of a Hermès bag where the scent of a perfume lingered”: fine leather wrapped in fresh trails of citrus, seasoned with spices.

By the Fragnatique team2 min read6 sourcesUpdated 11 November 2026

Key facts

1837Harness maker Thierry Hermès opens his Paris workshop.
1951Eau d'Hermès, the house's first fragrance, is created.
Edmond RoudnitskaThe perfumer who composed Eau d'Hermès.
114 yearsThe gap between the first workshop and the first perfume.
Leather, citrus, spiceThe perfumer's own description of the scent, as Hermès quotes it.

When did Hermès start, and was it always a perfume house?

No, it began with horses. The Hermès 2021 Universal Registration Document says the house started in 1837, when the harness maker Thierry Hermès opened a workshop on rue Basse-du-Rempart in Paris, in the Grands Boulevards district. A house press brochure calls it his harness and saddle-making workshop. Leather came more than a century before scent.

Why did Hermès wait until 1951 for a perfume?

The house does not give a reason, only the dates. Its perfumers press brochure says the story of Hermès begins in 1837 and that the olfactory adventure started properly in 1951 with Eau d'Hermès, composed by Edmond Roudnitska. The 2021 timeline says the creation of Eau d'Hermès marks the founding of a new métier. That is 114 years from first workshop to first bottle.

What does Eau d'Hermès smell like?

Leather first. Hermès quotes the perfumer's description from the time: “A note of fine leather wrapped in fresh trails of citrus fruit, seasoned with spices.” The French page uses the same words, une note de fine peausserie, and the beauty site Prime Beauté repeated the line in 2016. A leather house began its perfume story with leather.

Is Eau d'Hermès still sold?

Hermès still had an Eau d'Hermès eau de toilette page on its US site in April 2026, as an archived copy shows. That page repeats the founding claim, calling it the house's very first fragrance, created in 1951, and says it evokes the inside of a Hermès bag in which the aroma of a perfume lingers.

The full storyEau d'Hermès: The First Hermès Perfume, Inspired by a Leather Bag7 min read in the Fragnatique Journal

Sources

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