By Kilian

About the house

Kilian Hennessy launched By Kilian in October 2007 with six perfumes and a single counter at Bergdorf Goodman in New York. He says the push came from a Baccarat museum exhibition on a century of the brand's perfumery, and the next day he resigned from L'Oréal to create his own house. He chose his own first name for the brand, saying it seemed obvious to him.

His career before that was in fragrance marketing. By his own account he spent three years at Paco Rabanne within the Puig group, then became marketing director of Alexander McQueen Parfum at Gucci Group, where he worked for almost three years on McQueen's first perfume, Kingdom. After that he returned to L'Oréal as marketing director for Giorgio Armani perfumes. He names the perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud as his mentor for about ten years, and Maurice Roger, who headed Dior perfume, as the person who taught him to treat perfume as a craft.

Hennessy comes from the cognac family. Press has described him as a grandson of one of the LVMH group's founders, while he points out that Hennessy has been part of LVMH since 1987 and is no longer a family business. He describes Angels' Share as his olfactory memory of the Hennessy cellars.

The house puts weight on its packaging. Refillable bottles and reusable boxes are part of its identity, and in 2014 Hennessy summed it up with the line "Luxury should not be disposable." He says he wanted a bottle unique to the brand, engraved in the glass, and had to persuade suppliers to run only 10,000 of them.

The Estée Lauder Companies announced its acquisition of By Kilian on 25 February 2016, following its purchases of Frédéric Malle and Le Labo. The price was not disclosed. Executive Chairman William P. Lauder called Kilian's heritage of sophistication and luxury a terrific match for the company. At the time of the sale the brand was in more than 40 markets and ran stores in Paris, New York, Moscow, London, Lugano and Doha, selling fragrances, candles and scented jewellery.