Heritage
A house, in its own words
Jolie Laide Perfume grew out of Heather Kaufman’s studies in natural perfumery with Mandy, the name used for Mandy Fletcher, with whom she trained before establishing her own practice. Kaufman initially worked as a graphic designer, a background that helps explain the deliberate naming, visual coherence, and literary framing of the fragrance collection. Rather than build perfumes around abstract marketing language, she organized them around French films and their worlds. Masculin Féminin appeared in 2013, followed by Cléo de 5 à 7 and Jules et Jim, also dated to 2013 and 2014 in the available collection record. À Bout de Souffle and Baisers Volés joined the range in 2013, while Bande À Part was released in 2015. This film-centered catalog gave the young house a distinct identity before later releases such as Jolie Étoile expanded its naming universe. Kaufman has also assembled a personal scent museum in a cottage behind her Berkeley home, where she keeps historic perfume texts and examples. Although the collection is associated with San Francisco, that Berkeley room offers a glimpse into the wider historical curiosity that informs Kaufman’s work. Her path from graphic design to perfumery, through study and independent practice, gives Jolie Laide a story rooted in reinterpretation. The brand does not imitate conventional fragrance categories so much as translate the attitudes of cinema into olfactory form. Jolie Laide begins with a reversal: something labeled ugly or awkward can reveal unexpected beauty. Kaufman’s approach treats perfume as a vehicle for character rather than a straightforward decorative accessory. French films provide a ready language of contradiction, wit, romance, darkness, and glamour. Masculin Féminin holds opposing ideas within its title, Bande À Part suggests separation from convention, and Cléo de 5 à 7 draws on the private rituals and emotional tension of a celebrated film. This cinematic reference gives each fragrance a narrative frame and invites wearers to encounter scent as atmosphere, memory, or character study. Natural perfumery sits at the center of the house’s philosophy, with Kaufman drawing on botanical materials and the variety found in nature. Her interest in perfumery also extends beyond product creation into preservation and scholarship, reflected in her home scent museum of old texts and examples. The house’s values therefore combine research, imagination, and close attention to natural materials. Beauty, in this context, does not require polish at every turn. It can come from friction, irregularity, complexity, and surprise. Jolie Laide’s creative vision is best understood as an act of translation. Kaufman converts the emotional logic of French cinema into scent, using names and stories to shift fragrance away from impersonal display and toward a more personal, culturally specific encounter.