Furriers by trade, perfumers by destiny. Since 1920 Alfred, Jacques and Marcel Weil enjoyed great success as designers practicing in the trade of fur at Les Fourrures Weil. Then in 1927 a wealthy client requested a perfume designed especially to sweeten fur without damaging it and Parfums Weil was born. The brothers hired talented nose Claude Fraysse to create the first Weil parfums. Fraysse had trained at Firmenich; he was considered to be the very top nose at Yardley, which was one of the largest commercial perfume houses at the time. Fraysse was famous not only for his own work as a perfumer but because his talent overflowed into his family tree. Three of his children went on to become perfumers of note, as did at least one of his grandchildren.
Above, Jacqueline's brother Andre Fraysse (1902-1976) in the late 1920s. He became Lanvin's in-house perfumer in 1927.

With the help of his daughter perfumer Jacqueline Fraysse, Claude created the first trio of perfumes offered by Weil in 1927/1928, the so-called fur perfumes: Hermine- a sweet tropical floral scent, Chinchilla Royal- a jasmine/rose blend and Zebeline- a grand floral chypre with deep vetiver/oak notes.

Jacqueline Fraysse must have been a fascinating person. She worked in a male dominated field at a time when most young women stayed home, or if they were adventurous, needy or otherwise inclined, worked in other people's homes. She came of age in the electrifying, emancipating atmosphere of 1920s Paris and New York- the Jazz Age. Yet she lived and worked under the watchful eyes of her perfumer father and brothers. Judging from the quality and success of the perfumes, she flourished even throughout the difficult years of depression and war that followed. In 1934 her first solo perfume- a fruity-floral-woody scent with an exotic Asian/Polynesian theme- was christened: Bamboo.

She followed up with Cassandra, a perfume "anise like... a hint of stryax, fruits and florals" (notes from Perfumed Court), released in 1936. Billed as a spicy feminine perfume light enough for day but bewitching enough for night; the story says that it took Jacqueline two years to perfect the formula. Noir was her third independent release debuting in 1937.

It's hard to get a feel for Noir before smelling it because there's hardly anything to go from. Unlike her other perfumes, there isn't anything like a list of notes or even as much as an advertising tag line for Noir.

I believe there are published sources with notes for many of Weil's perfumes (that I haven't got....) but if Noir is there, no one is telling. Yet searching for notes lists of Weil's perfumes on the Internet yields some information.

Secret de Venus 1933: A woody oriental chypre edp with top notes of lemon, cassis, peach, bergamot and grapefruit, heart notes of jasmine, gardenia and freesia on base notes of cedar, sandalwood and vanilla. Claude, Herbert, Andre or Jacqueline may have composed this one alone or together or with help from each other- I do not know yet I can't help but feel it must be Claude and or Jacqueline. Advertising copy for SdV at the time claimed: "It's the divine perfume oil to be smoothed on after bath or shower and grows more intense the longer you wear it." I cringe at some of the sky-high prices asked for many vintage perfumes but Weil's SdV scent in the SdV oil is worth its price.

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