Gérard Pelpel

About

Gérard Pelpel (1933-2024) was a French perfumer whose entire career was spent inside one of the great twentieth-century fragrance houses. Born in Paris in 1933, he completed his military service and at age 23 joined Roure-Bertrand-Dupont, the historic Grasse-based firm. He benefited from the teaching of Jean Carles at the Roure school in Grasse, the most influential training programme in modern perfumery, and worked under directors Louis Amic and Jean Amic. He remembered Germaine Cellier as an unforgettable laboratory neighbour, as much for her obvious talent as for her original personality - placing him in the immediate orbit of one of the era's most celebrated noses. Pelpel remained with Roure through its consolidation into Givaudan and retired at the end of the 1990s, by which point Roure-Bertrand-Dupont had become part of what is today the world's largest fragrance house. He was characteristically modest about his contributions and focused on production quality and technical compliance for the company's major releases, the kind of in-house craft that supports a fragrance brief without taking the credit line. His best-documented signature is Jean Couturier Coriandre (1973), the green-chypre classic for women, which he co-composed with Jacqueline Couturier and Jean-Louis Sieuzac - a perfume that remains a touchstone of 1970s French chypre. A 22-minute filmed interview with Pelpel was recorded by the Per Fumum Foundation in Paris on 21 June 2017, capturing his memories of the Roure era.