At a young age, Lille-born Serge Lutens established the feminine signatures that he would make his own—eyeshadow, ethereally beautiful skin, cropped hair, the color black—through work as an art director, photographer, and what Diana Vreeland described in the early 1970s as a “revolution of makeup.”

In 1982, as part of a collaboration with Shiseido, he conceived his first perfume, Nombre Noir, followed by a series of olfactory breakthroughs such as Féminité du Bois, Les Salons du Palais Royal, and Ambre Sultan. His own brand, encompassing fragrance and beauty, is a testament to his bold, uncompromising style.