François Coty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids François Coty
François Coty 1910
Senator of Corsica
In office 1923–1924
Mayor of Ajaccio
In office May 1931 – August 1934
Preceded by	Dominique Paoli
Succeeded by	Hyacinthe Campiglia
Personal details
Born	Joseph Marie François Spoturno (1874-05-03)3 May 1874 Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Died	25 July 1934(1934-07-25) (aged 60) Louveciennes, Yvelines, France
Political party	Bonapartist Central Committee French Solidarity (1933–1934)
Occupation	Perfumer Entrepreneur Newspaper publisher
Signature

François Coty (born Joseph Marie François Spoturno; 3 May 1874 – 25 July 1934) was a famous French perfumer, businessman, and newspaper publisher. He also played a role in politics and supported the arts. He founded the Coty perfume company, which is now a large international business. Many people see him as the person who created the modern perfume industry.

In 1904, his first successful perfume, La Rose Jacqueminot, launched his career. He quickly began selling perfumes from France to other countries. By 1910, he had offices in Moscow, London, and New York. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Soviet government took his money and businesses in Moscow. This made him strongly against Communism for the rest of his life.

After World War I, François Coty became one of the richest people in France. His wealth allowed him to support artists, collect art, and buy historic homes. He also wanted to be involved in politics. In 1922, he took control of the newspaper Le Figaro. To stop the growth of socialism and Communism in France, he started two more daily newspapers in 1928.

He was elected as a senator for Corsica in 1923. He also served as the mayor of Ajaccio from 1931 to 1934. Because he worried about Communism spreading, he gave money to several right-wing groups. In 1933, he started his own political movement called Solidarité française. This group became even more extreme after he died.

When he passed away at age 60, his wealth was much smaller. This was due to his divorce, the high costs of running his newspapers, and the effects of the economic crisis of 1929.

Early Life and Family

Joseph Marie François Spoturno was born on 3 May 1874 in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was related to Isabelle Bonaparte, who was an aunt of Napoleon Bonaparte. His parents, Jean-Baptiste Spoturno and Marie-Adolphine-Françoise Coti, were descendants of settlers from Genoa. These settlers had founded Ajaccio in the 1400s.

François's parents died when he was young. His great-grandmother, Marie Josephe Spoturno, raised him. After she passed away, his grandmother, Anna Maria Belone Spoturno, took care of him in Marseille.

After serving in the military, François met Emmanuel Arène, a politician and writer from Corsica. Arène became François's mentor and offered him a job as his secretary in Paris. In Paris, François married Yvonne Alexandrine Le Baron. He then changed his name to Coty, which sounded more French and was a version of his mother's maiden name.

He also met Raymond Goery, a pharmacist in Paris who made and sold perfume. Coty learned about perfumery from Goery. He then created his first fragrance, Cologne Coty.

Becoming a Perfume Pioneer

Through his mentor Arène, Coty met Léon Chiris, a senator whose family had made and sold perfumes for a long time. In 1903, Coty studied perfumery at the Chiris factories in Grasse. There, he started working on a new fragrance called La Rose Jacqueminot.

When he returned to Paris in 1900, he visited the Exposition Universelle (1900), a big world's fair. He got married, and in 1904, Coty tried to sell his perfumes to stores. At first, he did not have much success. His luck changed at the Grands Magasins du Louvre, a department store in Paris. He accidentally dropped a bottle of La Rose Jacqueminot on a counter. The wonderful scent attracted many customers, who quickly bought all his perfumes. The store then offered him a space to sell his products. The success of La Rose made Coty a millionaire and a major name in the perfume world.

Perfume bottle, Lalique for Ambre Antique.

Coty understood that a beautiful bottle was very important for a perfume's success. While La Rose came in a Baccarat bottle, Coty worked most famously with the artist René Lalique. Lalique designed bottles for Coty's early perfumes, such as Ambre Antique and L'Origan, which became very popular. He also designed the labels for Coty perfumes, which were printed on gold with raised letters. Lalique's designs for Coty were in the Art Nouveau style, which was popular at the time. They often featured nature, flowers, and female figures.

Coty not only made bottle design important, but he also made perfume available to many more people. Before Coty, perfume was a luxury item that only very rich people could afford. Coty was the first to offer perfumes at different prices. By mixing natural scents with man-made ingredients from suppliers like Firmenich, he lowered production costs. He is seen as the creator of modern perfumery. His perfumes in Lalique and Baccarat bottles were for the luxury market. But he also sold perfumes in smaller, simpler bottles that middle and working-class women could afford. Coty perfume bottles, even though many were made, were carefully designed to look luxurious and special. Coty also came up with the idea of a fragrance set. This was a gift box with matching items like perfume, powder, soap, and cosmetics.

In 1908, Coty moved his main factory to Suresnes, near Paris. He bought land and started building "La cité des Parfums" (The City of Perfumes). This was a large complex of labs and factories. "La cité" had 9,000 employees and could make up to 100,000 bottles a day. This helped Coty meet the growing demand for his products in France and other countries. Before World War I, Coty perfumes were the most popular in the world. He had branches in Moscow, New York, London, and Buenos Aires, and François Coty was already very rich. In 1913, his agent in the United States, Benjamin Levy, helped him create Coty Inc. in Delaware. In 1917, during the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks took his stores, factories, and money in Moscow.

After World War I, the demand for French perfume grew quickly. Many American soldiers had been in France during the war. They brought Coty perfumes back to their families. Coty realized how important the American market was and began selling his products in the United States.

In 1921, with the help of executive Jean Despres, Coty opened an American branch in New York. This office handled putting together and selling products in the American market. (Coty’s headquarters at No. 714 Fifth Avenue is now a famous building with restored Lalique windows.) The American offices put together Coty products using materials sent from Paris. This helped avoid high taxes on luxury goods in the United States. This allowed Coty to offer his products at better prices. Later, more branches were set up in the United Kingdom and Romania.

Coty soon added cosmetics and skin care products to his line. He also expanded his sales network to Europe, Asia, and Latin America. By 1925, 36 million women around the world used Coty face powders. His most popular product was his Air-spun face powder, launched in 1934. Coty worked with the famous costume designer Léon Bakst to create the look of the Air-spun powder box. It became so popular that Coty soon launched the Air-spun powder scented with his most popular perfumes, like L'origan and Emeraude.

Supporting Arts and Science

François Coty was one of the wealthiest men in France. His great wealth allowed him to support many projects. He helped fund artistic efforts, early airplane flights, and scientific research.

He also supported his home region of Corsica. He helped develop the electricity system for Ajaccio. He built affordable homes and set up a monument for World War I. He gave money to the French Olympic committee for the 1928 Summer Olympics. He also supported pilots Costes and Bellonte in their successful attempt to fly across the Atlantic from Paris to New York in 1930. He also supported the tragic attempt by pilots Joseph Le Brix and René Mesmin to break the world record for distance flying.

Coty also helped set up a new research lab for physicist Édouard Branly (who was important in radio communications) at the Catholic Institute of Paris. He also supported many artists and the French Academy in Rome.

Newspaper Publisher and Politics

In 1923, Coty was elected senator of Corsica. However, his victory was short-lived. The French Senate cancelled his election in 1924 after claims of bribery.

Figaro headquarters under Coty.

In 1922, Coty bought Le Figaro, a respected conservative newspaper. Coty changed the newspaper's name to Figaro and moved its main office. Under Coty's ownership, the newspaper became very right-wing in its political and economic views. Figaro published many strong anti-Communist articles. It was known for its strong opposition to the government.

In 1926, Coty worked with Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to create a fund to make the French currency stable. He offered to lend 100 million francs to the French government. However, he was not included in the group chosen to manage the fund, possibly because of his strong political views. He then took his money to New York and gave a large amount to the French Hospital there.

Feeling disappointed, Coty launched L'Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People) in 1928. This newspaper was for working-class people. It was much cheaper than other newspapers and quickly gained many readers. Coty wrote many strong articles in L'Ami du peuple.

Coty gave money to groups that later became far-right organizations, such as the Faisceau and Croix-de-Feu, a group for World War I veterans. However, he stopped his support after a few years. In 1933, he published a plan for reforming the government. He also started his own movement called French Solidarity. After his death in July 1934, this movement became even more extreme.

Coty believed in Bonapartism, which supported a strong leader like Napoleon. He was also a nationalist and wanted a strong Republic with a powerful executive branch. He wrote two books: Against Communism (1928) and Save our colonies (1931). In his plan for government reform, he suggested that the President of the Republic should be elected directly by all citizens, including women. He also proposed a seven-year term for the president, with the chance to serve two terms, and the creation of a supreme court. Some of these ideas were later adopted by the French Fifth Republic, which was set up by Charles de Gaulle in 1958.

The Stade François Coty in Ajaccio was named after him.

Personal Life

François Coty and Yvonne had two children, Roland and Christiane. Coty was known for buying and renovating many grand properties. In 1906, he bought the Château de Longchamp near the Bois de Boulogne. He used it as a lab to create his fragrances, bottles, packaging, and ads.

In 1912, he bought the Château d'Artigny near Tours and rebuilt it in a very grand way over 20 years. During the 1920s, he lived with his family in a mansion in Paris.

Coty's most famous purchase was the hunting pavilion of Louveciennes near Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This building was designed for Madame du Barry, who was a mistress of King Louis XV. Coty had Louveciennes rebuilt to match the original design, but he made it larger to include a perfume lab and an extra floor. He also bought the Château Saint-Hélène in Nice, the Villa Namouna in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, and Le Scudo in Ajaccio, Corsica. Even though he owned many large homes, Coty often stayed in a hotel in Paris. He was a private person and disliked crowds.

After 1929, Coty's wealth began to shrink a lot. Both Figaro and L'Ami du peuple had been losing money for years. His perfume business was also affected by the 1929 Wall Street crash. But his divorce contributed the most to his financial problems.

In 1929, Yvonne divorced Coty. Their divorce agreement said that Coty would pay his ex-wife a large sum of money in three payments. But in 1931, Coty could not make the last payment, saying he had financial difficulties. Over the next few years, courts ruled in favor of Yvonne. She was granted ownership of most of Coty's wealth and his newspapers.

He died in 1934 at his home in Louveciennes. He passed away from pneumonia and problems after an aneurysm.

In 1963, Yvonne sold Coty Inc. to the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. A condition of the sale was that no member of the Coty family would be involved in the company. Under Pfizer, the company started selling its perfumes mostly in drugstores, instead of department stores. In 1992, Pfizer sold Coty to the German company Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH, which owns it today.

List of Famous Perfumes

Advertisement for La Rose Jacqueminot - Coty design Leonetto Cappiello circa 1904.

François Coty was a leader in perfumery, creating many wonderful scents. Many of his creations are now kept in the archives of the Osmothèque. Some of his most notable perfumes include:

See also

In Spanish: François Coty para niños

• French Third Republic
• Jean Despres