Origins & milestones

Iris & powdery did not arrive as one bottle. The timeline below keeps Grasse, Guerlain, Chanel, Nahéma and IFRA as proper names, not metaphors.

Read the years as a map of trade and reformulation, not as a ranking of beauty.

Timeline

1. to 1800sFlorence orris

   Iris pallida rhizomes around Florence become a European powder trade.

2. 1906Après l’Ondée

   Jacques Guerlain’s heliotropin-iris after the rain — powder as weather.

3. 1912L’Heure Bleue

   Guerlain’s blue hour: anise, heliotropin, orris, pastry dusk.

4. 1921No. 5 powder

   Aldehydes over orris-adjacent luxury; makeup as architecture.

5. 1970Chanel No. 19

   Henri Robert’s iris-galbanum green powder for Coco Chanel’s last signature.

6. 1994Iris Silver Mist

   Maurice Roucel for Lutens: orris as cold metal and root, not makeup.

7. 1999Hiris

   Olivia Giacobetti for Hermès: watercolor iris, carrot and honey.

8. 2007Infusion d’Iris

   Prada / Daniela Andrier: starch, soap and orris as fashion minimalism.

9. 2010sIris boom

   Every niche house launches an orris; prices follow the rhizome wait.

10. IFRA / costButter vs ionone

    True butter stays rare; ionones and irone reconstitutions fill briefs.

The eras

• Root trade — Orris as potpourri, starch and breath-sweetener before haute powder.
• Guerlain dusk — Après l’Ondée and L’Heure Bleue invent emotional powder.
• Green iris — No. 19 ties orris to galbanum and leather-adjacent chic.
• Root realism — Lutens and Hermès treat iris as vegetable metal, not rouge.
• Prada starch — Infusion aesthetics: clean, expensive laundry-iris.

Milestones

• Après l’Ondée, 1906 — Powder as meteorology — the family's emotional template.
• Chanel No. 19, 1970 — Iris as the last Chanel signature of Coco’s lifetime.
• Infusion d’Iris, 2007 — Made orris the 21st-century fashion-house default.

Iris & powdery keeps moving; the other six chapters say what one date cannot.

Origins & milestonesNotes & accordsCraft & methodCulture & meaningIcons & legendsHow to wearMarket & bottles