See also: Coty

Joseph Marie François Spoturno known as François Coty is a Industriel and man Politique French (“Artist, industrialist, technician, economist, financier, sociologist” according to its calling card), born with Ajaccio the May 3rd 1874 and died with Louveciennes the July 25th 1934.

Born in 1874 with Ajaccio, very young orphan, François Coty leaves the school early and is raised by its great-grandmother. In 1900, he marries Yvonne Alexandrine the Baron and settles in Paris, where he adopts the name of Coty - easier to pronounce and undoubtedly more acceptable socially than his original patronym.

The history wants that at that time, it was accustomed to playing stake with a pharmacist, which had, one day, to give their part because it was to work, in its laboratory, with officinal preparations. Coty there accompanied and was shown fascinated by the material of chemist. The pharmacist then gave him the receipt of the Eau de Cologne, to which Coty was tested. The result was considered to be satisfactory and the pharmacist advised to him to learn perfumery. Coty then went to spend a year to Grasse to be formed with the techniques of the cosmetic near Antoine Chiris. Returned in Paris, it begins by selling gasolines which it makes come from Fatty to the barbers from the capital.

A brilliant industrialist of perfumery

It seems that its paternal family as of annés the 1860 had interests in the production of Oranger S in Corsica and that the distillation of the flower of orange tree was a topic approached in front of him in its childhood.

Coty is not only a " nose " talented; it is the first to understand that the Parfum, until reserved there with a restricted elite, can and will become a bulk product.

It has thus the idea to associate the natural gasolines and the products of synthesis which progress of the organic chemistry makes it possible from now on to produce at a cheap rate, thus allowing perfumery to enter the industrial era. Since 1905, it creates its own factory on the edges of the Seine with Suresnes. It will be followed many others: in the island of Puteaux for metal conditionings, in Neuilly for the boxes of leather and paperboard, with Pantin and the Lilacs for the bottles.

It includes/understands the importance of marketing, the packaging (calling upon the famous glassmaker Rene Lalique which creates for him the bottle of Effleurt , then that of ancient Ambre , but also in Baccarat and the decorator Leon Bakst) and of publicity and thus summarizes its commercial philosophy: " Give to a woman the best produces than you can prepare, present it in a perfect bottle of a beautiful simplicity, but of an impeccable taste, made pay it a reasonable price, and it will be the birth of a big business such as the world in forever vu." It gains great business successes with the Pink Jacqueminot (1904), Origan (1905), Ancient Ambre (1908), the Lily of the valley (1910), white Lilas (1910), Iris (1913, first perfume soliflore) and especially Cyprus , launched in 1917, the first perfume general public, whose success will last of the decades. The powder " Origan" , in its famous orange and white box, is sold to 16 million specimens per annum in France.

Whereas the perfumers marketed their creations only in their own shops, Coty (which has a store open in 1905 rue La Boétie to Paris), decides to sell its perfumes in the department stores, running up initially against the skepticism of those. The anecdote wants that Coty, outgoing of an appointment with the director of the Stores of the Louvre which had refused the possibility to him of marketing in its rays its new perfume the Pink Jacqueminot , threw of it a bottle right in the middle of the crammed store, causing a quasi-riot whereas tens of customer precipitated to require where they could buy some. The Stores of Louvre accepted the perfume of which more than 500 bottles tore off themselves in a few days. The other department stores followed. At the end of four months, Coty had gained its first million. The day before the war of 1914, the Parfums Coty were n° 1 in the world, with branches in Moscow, New York, London and Buenos Aires, and very rich Coty already.

In 1918, to start again the sales, Coty with the idea of genius to condition its perfumes in small bottles, which makes the ideal gift of it that the returned American soldiers of the face will bring back to their wife or their boyfriend. Success is colossal.

The billionaire

In 1920, the fortune of Coty amounts in hundreds of million francs. He is even regarded then as one of the richest men of the world. Charles Maurras - one of its political adversaries (see below) - calls " the ploutocrate".

Its physical appearance was generally considered to be enigmatic, even disturbing. Coty has russet-red hair, which it will end up dyeing into fair, and the motionless eye right, as if it were out of glass. It carries to the finger an enormous sapphire, flees crowd and the society life, and carries out a cloistered life and mysterious. Thus, it buys in Paris the enormous private mansion of George Kessler, located 24 and 26 Avenue Raphaël in Ranelagh (destroyed today), considered as one of the greatest architectural successes of Ernest Sanson, but it uses it only as postal address and to store its collections of pieces of furniture and tables, preferring to reside at the hotel Claridge avenue of the Fields-Elysées.

July 30th, 1912, Coty acquires for 600.000 francs the Château of Artigny to Montbazon, close to Tours, built during the One hundred Year old war around a keep of medieval time. Allured by the site and its splendid sight on the valley of Indre, it is it less by the buildings. Like Edmond de Fels with Close, it makes shave this enough heteroclite unit to make build, between 1912 and 1929, a splendid castle in the style of the 18th century, inspired of the Château of Champlâtreux, the family residence of the Molé, impressive work of the architect Jean-Michel Chevotet. Coty and its family reside at Artigny half of the year, the Master working on the first floor, which explains the choice - unusual - to build the kitchens under the roofs so that the odor of food does not come to disturb the development of the perfumes. The interior decoration is sumptuous, with a vault inspired by that of Versailles and a fresco of Charles Hoffbauer representing the family of the perfumer and his friends. Splendid greenhouses are built in the gardens.

With Louveciennes, Coty buys in 1923 a field including/understanding the house built by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in 1771 for the countess of Barry. Under the pretext of build in basement a laboratory of perfumery, an electric generator, kitchens and a swimming pool, he does not hesitate to make move this last of several meters, which will cause besides to preserve it, a few years later, of a depression of the cliff at the edge of which he had been built. The house nevertheless is deeply deteriorated by the heightening of a stage, ordered with the architect Charles Mewès, in order to create five rooms to be slept additional. Tropical greenhouses are created, connected to the house by underpasses. It is in this field that Coty will die in 1934, victim of an cerebral vascular accident.

In the Twenties, it has the Saint-Helene castle with Nice (acquired in 1922 and which shelters today the international Museum of na5ive art Anatole Jakovsky), the Nanouna villa with Beaulieu-sur-Mer, the castle of Filolie with Thiviers (the Dordogne), a villa with Corsica Biarritz and two properties in of which Scudo with Ajaccio, acquired in the Sixties by the singer Tino Rossi. In 1926, it rents at the Town of Paris the Château of Longchamp, located in the Bois de Boulogne, formerly residence of the baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine and left to the abandonment. It makes it demolish and makes build, in the style of the 18th century, the castle which is there still today.

Friend of arts and Coty patron finances many exposures, but also the crossing of the Atlantic Paris - New York by Costes and Bellonte or the new laboratory of the physicist Edouard Branly, in the enclosure of the catholic Institute of Paris.

A discussed political orientation

François Coty launches out in the policy in the Twenties. Viscéralement anticommunist, it admires the Italian Fascism which it will contribute to acclimatize in France.

In February 1922, it takes the control of the Figaro , which it renames Figaro and which it installs roundabout of the Fields-Elysées. In 1925, it names Lucien Romier editor association, but separates some two years later. The newspaper adopts a leading line resolutely on the right and loses most of its readers: in 1932, the diffusion fell to 10.000 specimens. In 1925, it financially supports the newspaper of the Faisceau of Georges Valois, the New Century . It leaves the Beam in 1926 however.

In 1928, Coty repurchases the Gallic that it amalgamates with the Barber.

It founds in 1928 popular the the Friend of the people , whose offices are installed street of Bassano. Intended for the popular classes, the daily newspaper is sold two pennies, which is worth to him a resounding lawsuit brought by the famous daily newspapers with five pennies like the Morning , the Newspaper and Small Parisian the . Déboutés, those will be condemned to pour two million damage interests to him.

In 1923, Coty is elected Senator of Corsica but its election is invalidated by the Senate. In 1931, he is elected mayor of Ajaccio (the stage of the city, inaugurated in 1910, always bears its name).

In 1927, it supports the creation of the Crosses of Fire by the Count Maurice d' Hartois, which settle besides, at the beginning, in the buildings of the Barber. In 1933, it founds its own movement: French Solidarity, which announces nearly 10.000 members and takes part in the riots of the February 6th, 1934. After the death of its founder, little time after, the movement amalgamates with the Francisme of Marcel Bucard.

The heritage of François Coty

The political activities of Coty did nothing but tarnish its memory: they left it completely ruined.

To its death, the majority of its goods are placed under sequestration at the request of its many creditors. Its ex-wife, Yvonne Cotnaréanu, will not return thus in possession of the castle of Artigny that in 1947, qu ' it will resell in 1959. Since 1934 nevertheless, it becomes the first shareholder of the Barber. She will yield half of her actions, on May 15th, 1950, with a group made up around Jean Prouvost. In 1964, it sells other half with the Prouvost-Béghin group.

The company of the Coty Perfumes exists always today. It holds marks like Jennifer Lopez, Céline Dion, the Adidas perfumes, Rimmel, and Lancaster (Site of Lancaster).

Its great creations, like " Chypre" who gave his name to the family of the chyprés perfumes, " Antique" amber; , " Origan" , " Emeraude" , " Aimant" , " The jasmine of Corse" or its first perfume " The Pink Jacqueminot" , always can are felt with the International Academy of the Perfumes of Versailles. (Osmothèque)

The Association François Coty, which perpetuates his memory, gives each year a price to a perfumer, for the whole of its work.

Works of François Coty

• Against Communism , Grasset, Paris, 1928.