SCENTS, SECRETS & SCANDALS WITH KRIGLER
- Morgan Richmond
- Oct 17
- 2 min read
For nearly a century and a half, Krigler has been the secret weapon of the world’s most captivating figures—Audrey in her ingénue years, Grace before the crown, Hemingway with a tumbler nearby. These are not just perfumes, they’re love affairs in glass bottles that hold history, scandal, and the kind of glamour that refuses to fade.
If the walls of The Plaza Hotel could talk, they’d probably gossip in perfume. And if the bottles lining Krigler’s gilded counters could whisper, oh, the stories they’d spill. Founded in 1879 with the swoon-worthy gesture of Albert Krigler gifting a fragrance to his fiancée (take notes, gentlemen),this heritage house has since perfumed some of the world’s most legendary icons—Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each numbered flacon is less “just a scent” and more “passport stamp + love letter + stolen diary entry.” Krigler is, in short, a living archive that still smells ridiculously chic.
Take Audrey Hepburn. Picture it: Nice, France, 1950. She’s nineteen, filming her very first movie, Monte Carlo Baby, and some- how finds herself wearing English Promenade 19—a flirtation of mandarin, jasmine, and Riviera breezes, inspired by the Promenade des Anglais. Was it fate? Was it proximity to a Krigler atelier near her lunch spot? Either way, the scent clung to her with the same elegance as her Givenchy gowns. Sometimes icons don’t choose fragrances— fragrances choose them.
Grace Kelly, on the other hand, discovered her signature not on a film set but at The Plaza in New York, where she often came for tea and meetings before she was royalty. She purchased Chateau Krigler 12 for herself in the 1950s, a perfume first created in 1912 and one of the earliest light, floral-sweet blends—a fragrance so effortless it practically wore pearls on its own.
And then there was Hemingway, who received America One 31 as a personal gift, one of the rare cases of Krigler creating something specifically for someone. Imagine him scribbling away, glass in hand, pausing only to dab on a spritz. Machismo, it turns out, isn’t incompatible with a fine fragrance.
Fast forward to today, and the allure hasn’t faded. If anything, in a world craving romance, permanence, and connection, these scents feel more relevant than ever. Nostalgia sells, but Krigler bottles it with higher concentrations, natural ingredients, and a savoir faire that simply can’t be rushed. Bespoke commissions are in high demand among clients who want a scent as unique as their private islands, while treasures from the archives are reimagined for modern wearers, like Octave Aurum 25, revived in Paris for its centennial.
Perfume, after all, isn’t just about smelling pretty. It’s about history, glamour, and the delicious idea that you’re sharing a bottle with Audrey, Grace, or Hemingway. In uncertain times, legacy perfumes remind us that elegance is eternal, memory is portable, and one spritz can carry you straight into another life.
Vivant Verdict: Legacy is the new luxury. And nothing lingers like Krigler.
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