Jean Patou, Moment Suprême, Moment Supreme, 'The Supreme Moment', 30 ml. or 1 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1929, 1940, Paris, France ..

When couturier Jean Patou arrived on the Paris scene in the 1920s, the world was changing .. especially for women. No longer corseted, bound by convention of whalebone ‘stays’, there was a spirit of freedom in the air .. and Jean Patou captured it.

He was born in 1887, in Normandy, where Jean Patou‘s father was a renowned leather tanner, known for his bookbinding skills. And it was his father who taught Jean Patou all about color.

After going to work for an uncle in the fur trade, Jean Patou launched his own venture as a dressmaker and furrier, moving into tailoring. And in 1914, just before the war broke out, he established his own couture house. Sadly, his first collection had to be mothballed: Jean Patou left Paris to serve as a captain in the French Zouave regiment, fighting as far afield as Anatolia. But in 1919, Patou returned to Paris, and did indeed launch a collection, including his famous long-waisted shepherdess dresses. He became famous for ‘sportif chic’ .. clothes designed to move, to flutter, to flirt gorgeously .. and to show off brazenly bare legs, in short hemlines.

In 1922 .. a slight career sidetrack, perhaps .. Jean Patou opened a nightclub, with fellow designer Edward Molyneux. It was named Le Jardin de Ma Soeur (My Sister's Garden). The highly social writer Anita Loos called it ‘the most elegant place in which to greet the Paris dawn'.

From 1925, Jean Patou was also creating the most desirable of perfumes. His debut perfumes were designed to complement women with a particular hair colour: Que Sais-Je? was for brunettes, Amour Amour was for blondes, and Adieu Sagesse was for redheads. In 1927, Jean Patou also delighted women with the introduction of Huile de Chaldée, the world’s first suntan oil.

Moment Suprême was launched in 1929, and was created by Jean Patou’s perfumer Henri Almeras. Moment Suprême is a spicy ambered harmony .. its first soft sensual warmth is due to lavender, geranium, cloves and bergamot. Its rose and jasmine heart lends elegance and refinement before its final blossoming from the ambered base which reinforces and draws out its very uniqueness.

"Moment Suprême, especially in Extrait, is a fat armload of lush flowers with a crisp lavender-geranium veil. Besides rose and jasmine, I wouldn’t count out powdery mimosa, iris, clove-like carnation, and a juicy gardenia, too. It’s a whopper of a bouquet, richocheting between an intoxicating freshness and an almost opaque, old fashioned tangle."

"The whole fragrance shines through the sepia tones of amber and musk. Sometimes I smell something a little animalic, but, as in Joy, it might well be the jasmine."

Top notes are Bergamot, Geranium, and Lavender
Heart notes are Jasmine, Rose, and Clove
Base note is simply Amber

Offered here is an increasingly rare sealed bottle of lovely seductive fragrance in a one ounce flacon! Hard to find these days, as collectors are not letting them go! Still sealed, never used, slight evaporation over time. Comes in its original presentation box .. Rare now ..