Kilian

Founded 2007 · Paris, France · Kilian Hennessy

Kilian Hennessy, great-grandson of the founder of the cognac house, set up his perfumery in 2007 with luxury refillable bottles and a catalogue of gourmands that Good Girl Gone Bad and Angels' Share carried to the top of niche.

History

Hennessy studied literature and wrote his thesis on the semantics of smell before training in perfumery and working for Dior, Givenchy and Alexander McQueen. In 2007 he founded By Kilian on one concrete material idea: the bottle is a permanent object and what you buy afterwards is the refill — a gesture of luxury and of common sense at once. The catalogue is organised into narrative collections. Angels' Share, from 2020 — cognac, cinnamon and tonka bean, a direct nod to the family business — is its most recent and largest success. Estée Lauder bought the house in 2016.

Iconic models

Angels' Share (2020)
Cognac, cinnamon and tonka bean. A nod to the family business that became its greatest success.
Good Girl Gone Bad (2012)
Rose, jasmine and osmanthus; the house's big feminine.
Black Phantom
Rum, coffee and sugar cane, in a bottle with a skull.

Worth knowing

"Angels' share" is the cognac trade's name for the spirit that evaporates from the barrel during ageing. Hennessy is the great-grandson of the cognac house's founder: the name is no coincidence.