Chloé

About the house

Gaby Aghion, born in Alexandria, Egypt, founded Chloé in Paris in 1952. She named the label after a friend rather than herself, and a guest curator quoted in the press says she liked the roundness of the letters. In 1953 she partnered with Jacques Lenoir, who ran the business side while she worked on the creative side.

The first Chloé presentation took place in 1956, over breakfast at the Café de Flore on the Left Bank. Press coverage describes the house as one of the first luxury women's ready-to-wear labels, made for women who could not afford couture.

Karl Lagerfeld designed for Chloé in two long periods, and sources differ on the exact years. Later creative directors include Stella McCartney (1997 to 2001), Phoebe Philo (2001 to 2006), Clare Waight Keller (2011 to 2017) and, since 2023, Chemena Kamali.

Aghion and Lenoir ran the house until 1985, when Alfred Dunhill Ltd. bought it. Chloé's entry on the Comité Colbert site says the house is part of the Richemont luxury group. Perfume is handled separately: in 2005 Coty bought several fragrance licenses from Unilever, Chloé's among them, and Coty makes the Chloé perfumes under license. Sources also disagree on whether the first Chloé fragrance appeared in 1973, as Chloé Classique, or in 1975 under Lagerfeld.

A 2024 report on NST Perfume describes Chloé L'Eau de Parfum Intense as a new flanker to the 2008 Chloé Eau de Parfum. Gaby Aghion died in Paris on 27 September 2014, aged 93.