Creed

Founded 1760 · London, England; later Paris, France · James Henry Creed

Creed sells the idea of lineage more dearly than anyone: it claims to go back to 1760 as a London tailoring house and to have perfumed half the royalty of Europe. The documented history is shorter than the story, but Aventus, from 2010, is by its own right one of the most influential perfumes of the century.

History

The house places its origin in London in 1760, in a tailoring workshop said to have begun making perfumed gloves and moved from there to perfume; the public archive supporting the oldest dates is thin, and that is worth saying. What is verifiable is that the Creed family has been in Parisian perfumery since the nineteenth century and that through the twentieth it built a catalogue with Green Irish Tweed (1985) and Silver Mountain Water (1995). The turn came in 2010 with Aventus — pineapple, smoky birch and musk — which became the most copied perfume of its decade: much of the Arabic catalogue on this site exists because Aventus exists. In 2020 the house sold a majority stake to BlackRock.

Iconic models

Aventus (2010)
Pineapple and smoky birch. The most imitated masculine of its decade, no argument.
Green Irish Tweed (1985)
A green aromatic with violet and iris; the house classic before Aventus.
Silver Mountain Water (1995)
Green tea and blackcurrant; among the first perfumes to smell of cold.

Worth knowing

The 1760 story and the list of royal clients the house publishes have no solid public documentary support. What is verifiable is Aventus, which in fifteen years reorganised masculine perfumery entirely.