Louis Vuitton's First Perfume: Heures d'Absence, 1927

What was Louis Vuitton's first perfume?

The short answer

Louis Vuitton's first perfume was Heures d'Absence, launched in 1927. The house says its original formula has long since been lost and that no one knows what it smelled like. The Heures d'Absence on sale since 27 February 2020 is a new perfume by master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud that shares only the name.

By the Fragnatique team2 min read7 sourcesUpdated 11 November 2026

Key facts

1927Louis Vuitton launches Heures d'Absence, its first perfume.
Seine-et-MarneThe region of the Vuitton family country home that gave the perfume its name.
Airplane and kilometre markerAn airplane engraved on the bottle, a box shaped like a road marker.
Formula lostThe house says no one knows what the original smelled like.
27 February 2020A new Heures d'Absence by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud goes on sale.

Where does the name Heures d'Absence come from?

From a house in the countryside. Louis Vuitton says the 1927 perfume was named after the country home the Vuitton family acquired in the Seine-et-Marne region of France, and The Glass Magazine gives the same origin. Harper's Bazaar Singapore places the launch at the height of the Roaring Twenties, when Louis Vuitton released its very first fragrance.

What did the 1927 Louis Vuitton bottle look like?

It was a tribute to travel. The house's 2020 press text describes a triumphant airplane engraved on the bottle and a box shaped like a kilometre marker. Louis Vuitton says the design celebrated the new modes of transport that were then emerging.

Why can nobody smell the original Heures d'Absence?

Because only the glass survived. Louis Vuitton's 2016 perfume release, as printed by The Fashion Plate, said the antique bottles are engraved with names such as Heures d'Absence, Réminiscences and Eau de Voyage, but the scents have evaporated. The National wrote the same year that all three fragrances have been lost to time and only the bottles remain.

Is the 2020 Heures d'Absence a recreation of the 1927 perfume?

No. Louis Vuitton says Cavallier Belletrud reinvented Heures d'Absence, and Harper's Bazaar Singapore calls it a renewed scent made necessary by the loss of the original formula. The Fragrance Foundation notes he has been the house's in-house perfumer since 2012. It is a new composition under an old name, not a copy of the lost one.

The full storyLouis Vuitton's First Perfume: The Lost Heures d'Absence of 19277 min read in the Fragnatique Journal

Sources

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