Jean Patou is a prestigious, historic luxury brand. "The costliest perfume in the world": Jean Patou himself already did the work for you! (ie. brand equity, market positioning). For the informed, Jean Patou stands up there with Chanel. Christian Dior was there too. Around when 'Christian Dior' rebranded to 'Dior', it adopted a mass marketing strategy. All good, but that left a gap in the LVMH prestige brand offerings. (Which seems to be partially filled by brand Exclusifs now.) Joy” was voted “ Scent of the Century” by the public at the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards in 2000, beating its rival “Chanel No. 5”. It shows how deep this fragrance is connected to people’s consciousness. Therefore, there is only one JOY. All these, with the exception of Le Sien, were re-released during the 1980s (under the name Ma Collection), and were available until recently, all in a 50ml Eau de Toilette Spray, 75ml Eau de Toilette bottle, and 30ml pure perfume bottle, each with a unique art deco box. A Jean Patou silk scarf, printed in a pattern complementing that of the box was included with the pure perfume. Joy remains the world's second best-selling scent (the first is Chanel No. 5), Joy was created by Henri Alméras for Patou at the height of the Great Depression (1935) for Patou's former clients who could no longer afford his haute couture clothing line. Zanon, Johanna " A Dress Named Desire: Contribution to the Titrology of Fashion during the Interwar Years", in Livraisons d'Histoire de l'Architecture 27 (2014), pp. 129–152. Joy was different from the previous Patou perfumes. First of all, unlike all the precious releases from the house, this bottle was very simple, austere and geometric, much in sync with the Art Deco style, and following the footsteps of the hit of Chanel Nº5. Second, the composition was for all women, more universal and not directed at a specific skin color or a particular event. It was a simple name, but very meaningful for everyone, everywhere. Joy was also jumping in the floral rose-jasmine trend initiated with Chanel Nº5, but whereas Chanel's take depended on artificiality and illusions, Patou's approach was mainly about naturalness and tradition.

An ounce of Joy had a retail price of 40 dollars, the most expensive perfume at the time. As told by Emmanuelle Polle, "What the clients would soon learn was that this ounce of perfume was produced through the extraction of some 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses. It was a gargantuan perfume, requiring huge quantities of fresh flowers. The couturier-perfumer was not one for artifice, be it in the way silk was worked or the walk of a model on the runway, or the ingredients of a perfume. The same line of conduct prevailed in his perfumes and his fashions: the quest for naturalness and the very best raw materials." Chaldée – Patou's Huile de Chaldée sun oil had become so popular, many customers were buying it purely for its smell, therefore, Chaldée the perfume (a dry musk) was produced IN my opinion, this is a case of a horrendous blunder while choosing the marketing team. This couldn't have happened, not with this brand. Imagine how many epigons of this wonderful original style are there on the market not even thinking of leaving their niche... Just because there are hot-shots in the gang who almost drill ways to impose their wits and glamour on the audience, not even bothering that there are better and more quality driven classics then their responsibility, which is probably the right path for any business, however... Evans, Caroline " Jean Patou’s American Mannequins: Early Fashion Shows and Modernism", in Modernism/modernity 15:2 (April 2008), pp. 243–263. After the closure of the haute couture business the company has continued to produce fragrances under the Jean Patou brand. Patou also produced fragrances for Lacoste, when Patou acquired the license in the 1960s, [6] and Yohji Yamamoto in the 1990s. [7]Jean Patou remained a family-owned business until September 2001 when it was bought by P&G Prestige Beaute a division of Procter & Gamble, which also market perfumes for Jean Kerléo and Karl Lagerfeld. Joy" was voted "Scent of the Century" by the public at the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards in 2000, beating its rival " Chanel No. 5". [10]

Henri Alméras, a perfumer that had worked before for Paul Poiret, was the creator of all the Patou perfumes that I've mentioned, as well as Chaldée, a fragrance that came to the world firstly as a scented tanning oil, and knew great success, especially in coastal places like Deauville and Monte-Carlo. The perfume branch of the Patou company was growing and it had subsidiaries in New York, as well as fields of roses and jasmine in Grasse, for it's own use in perfumes. "This control of every stage of production is another example of the care Jean Patou put into everything. It also reflects his fierce desire for independence, the better to run his house as he saw fit," references Emmanuelle Polle. The main difference is in the emphasis, however. Joy is more transparent, with few curves and twists. It has more radiance, however, and its sillage is less heavy and sweet than that of Allure. The finish is soft–sweet musk and woods, with just enough creamy sandalwood to keep things from becoming bland. Allure, by contrast, feels buxom and plush next to Joy, although its sweetness has always been the main reason why I didn’t like wearing it. The aura that was built around the Joy perfume was not just a matter of marketing, or at least not just marketing. Only the most selected and expensive natural ingredients were able to satisfy the taste of Jean Patou, but not in the way that some of the niche perfume houses today do, which rely exclusively on this aspect when speaking about the excellence of their products. For years Jean has been searching for the perfect formula, which will enchant the imagination of women and men throughout the Western world and provide them with – Joy. Similar efforts and aspirations that combine only natural and expensive ingredients, but in remarkable, unusual and inspired formulas can be found in the American niche of the perfume brand Parfums DelRae. Of course, there are many more perfumes from the house of Jean Patou that are wonderful, and you can even take a look at our article Best In Show Jean Patou Fragrances. Let's not forget 1000 (1972), Sublime (1992), and Patou For Ever, created by Jean Kerleo. But Joy is, or should be, considered an indelible cultural heritage of perfume history and French culture. LVMH, it's a sad day when you can't honour prestige French brands acquisitions. Mass marketing every fragrance will soon have the appeal of marketing Eurotrash. I fear, that day has already come. Any Niche brand can command prices twice that of a Dior fragrance (owned by LVMH) now. The grey market is filled with Dior fragrances, including Dior Joy. A side effect of mass marketing. This revolution of customers turning towards expensive Niche brands all happened under LVMH's watch.Steele, Valerie, ed. (2010). The Berg companion to fashion. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic. pp.553–555. ISBN 978-1-84788-563-0.

Designer Parfums buys Jean Patou from P&G Prestige". CosmeticsBusiness.com. 5 July 2011 . Retrieved 14 September 2012.

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Something I was fearing has happened. The house of Jean Patou is now dead when it comes to fragrance production.... The acquisition of the brand by LVMH was the final sign that things were coming to an end, and when they released a perfume called Joy under the Dior umbrella, it was clear that nothing good was going to happen with the original Joy, launched by Jean Patou in 1930. In terms of flacon, it was designed by the Architect decorator Louis Süe. Inspired by Crinoline dresses and was structure under the Golden number, perfection and balance.The flacon by the way did not change since its creation. With an astonishing contemporary design, it became timeless. It is filled by hand and the cap is fixed with the “emery” procedure. This ancestral technique consists of sealing the bottle with a thin, moist membrane called a balloon that solidifies as it dries. The glass is In Baccarat crystal, the gold elements are hand-painted and finally, the gold wire that tops the cap completes the creation of Jean Patou as a signature. Joy By Jean Patou Across The Years Joy was also a favorite of my mother, who told the story of losing a bottle on a trip from Paris to the un-pressurized cargo hold of the plane- even sealed it leaked all over her luggage. I’m not even sure this was true, but it’s a great story. In any case, she wore it for special occasions, whether that would be a dinner party, a night out somewhere nice, or even in an interview like a parent-teacher conference which may or may not go that well. Joy was beautiful, but it was also armor: as the “Costliest Perfume in the World” it read “Don’t F&*k with Me Fellas” in a most ladylike way, even more effective than Faye shouting. What can we say about the Jean Patou’s woman? She is definitely someone that does not go unnoticed. She loves colors and shapes. She will explore all nuances depending on her mood, situation and taste. She will be elegant during the week in the city as well as over the weekend at the sea or in the countryside. She will impose her femininity and yet be comfortable in her shoes. Jean Patou was the one to introduce the “weekend suitcase”,casual and elegant clothe for a two nights stay-out. All this richness will influence the in-house perfumer to develop one of the most beautiful fragrances of all: Joy. Patou was discovered unresponsive in his home the night of March 8, 1936 and died less than an hour later. He had been found to have suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage nearly 24 hours earlier. He died 4 months after his 48th birthday. His sister Madeleine and her husband Raymond Barbas continued the House of Patou.