Main character energy, 1930s style. You think you are just a spectator? Sit before the mirror. Gently take your Bienaimé lighter, light the "un air de jazz" candle, and admire your hair as it cascades over your bare shoulder. Everything is already composed. You are a masterpiece. Art deco, of course.
What object of desire could have possibly captivated Cécilia Mergui, an avid Art Deco collector, enough to reawaken the house of Bienaimé? While hunting for treasures online, she stumbled upon an intriguing compact. It was refillable. Unraveling the thread of its history, she acquired the brand in 2019 and brought it back to life in 2021.
The story truly begins in 1935, when chemist and perfumer Robert Bienaimé, formerly at the helm of Houbigant, founded his own house. From the outset came perfumes, powders, lipsticks, creams, and nail polishes, nestled in cases crafted like genuine vanity treasures. Among his earliest creations were La Vie en Fleurs, Fleurs d’Été, and Vermeil—names that would endure for nearly a century. Following the perfumer’s death in 1960, the house fell into slumber.
Today, Cécilia and her team revive the delightfully powdery beauty vocabulary of the 1930s—iris, violet, rose, heliotrope, balms, soaps, and candles—tailored for modern rituals. Heritage fragrances have been reformulated for contemporary sensibilities, while bottles are designed to be refilled and boxes repurposed. The Vermeil bottle, for instance, is crafted in Normandy by an artisan workshop recognized as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, and can be endlessly replenished.
My personal favorites: the Bienaimé lighter, in gilded metal with a marbled finish—the perfect excuse to spark a flame for… L'Heure Tendre, perhaps? Grapefruit mingles with neroli, jasmine, and vanilla in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, circa 1932. Essential to slip inside your coat: the purse spray, tucked into its leather sheath.
FOOTNOTES
ART Tamara de Lempicka, Polish painter
Portraits of sculptural, worldly, and fiercely independent women, defined by the geometric lines that became emblematic of Art Deco.
Film Grand Hotel, Edmund Goulding, 1932
Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and a monumental Berlin palace hotel: all the glamour of Art Deco gathered in a single lobby.
