Max Gavarry

About Max Gavarry

Max Gavarry is a French perfumer born in Grasse in 1937. Over a career of more than four decades, most of it spent at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), he composed fragrances for houses including Caron, Guy Laroche and Dior.

Career

Perfume was a family trade long before it became his profession: his father worked as a gardener, his grandfather distilled lavender, and his mother was employed in enfleurage, the old technique of capturing flower scent in fat. As a young man he joined Lautier Fils, a venerable Grasse perfume house, and stayed seven years before IFF, then a young company, recruited him for his flair for creation and fine perfumery. He remained at IFF for 34 years, a path that took him from Grasse to Rio, New York and Paris, and after retiring he became a regular speaker at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery (GIP).

Creative Style & Philosophy

Gavarry's craft grew out of the Grasse landscape itself, among the flowers and lavender stills that shaped his family's working life. Rather than arriving through a perfumery school, he learned his trade inside a family-run Grasse company, gaining a solid grounding before moving into fine fragrance. He has spoken of Henri and Guy Robert, Ernest Shiftan and Richard Mamounas as key figures along the way.

Signature Works

• *Infini* (Caron) — the composition he recalls as his first major success
• *J'ai Osé* (Guy Laroche) — one of the principal creations he looks back on
• *Dioressence* (Dior) — a fragrance created for the house of Dior
• *Beautiful* (Estée Lauder) — co-created with Sophia Grojsman and Bernard Chant