Germaine Monteil

Germaine Monteil was a French fashion designer and cosmetician who founded her own house in New York. The focus of the house lies on cosmetics and fragrances, and was named after the designer. The designer was born in France in 1898, and she moved to the United States in the early 1930s. She was very interested in manufacturing dresses and worked as a cosmetician, and later on as a fashion designer. Her specialty was classic dresses with flaring skirts and designs that accentuated women's slim silhouettes. She was also well known for her prints on clothing, which became popular among American women. In her adopted hometown of New York, she won a Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in 1938, which received due to the vast influence she had on the fashion industry. Germaine died in 1987. The beginnings of her business in perfumery date back to 1936, when she and her husband, Guy Bjorkman, founded Germaine Monteil Cosmetiques Corp. which specialized in skin treatments and creams. She also started creating fragrances, her first one being Laughter (later renamed Rigolade), in 1941. Since the line was a huge success, she decided to abandon fashion design in order to focus on perfume and cosmetics. The company was acquired in 2006 by the German company Wilde Cosmetics GmbH. Monteil fragrances launched in the 1940s were Laughter, New Love, Nostalgia and Frou Frou. During the 1950s the following perfumes were introduced: Fleur Savage, Gigolo, Nouvel Amour, Rigolade. In 1964 fragrance Galore was launched. The latest fragrances of the house launched in recent years belong to the Royal Secret collection (the original version is from 1935). Designer Germaine Monteil has 10 perfumes in our fragrance base. Germaine Monteil is an old perfume house. The earliest edition was created in 1935 and the newest is from 2012. The nose who worked on the fragrances is Christiane Plos.