During my years of contact within the world of niche/artisanal perfumery, it has been an honour to meet and number among my close connections, the members of the Perris family. Gianluca, Elisabetta and Consuelo are the 2nd generation who proudly steers the Perris Group, a Monaco-based company operating in over 50 countries in the luxury high-end and artistic perfumery, pharmaceuticals and technology arenas. Proudly family run, the Perris Group was created by their father, Michele Perris in 1981, originally as regional distributors for premium cosmetics, then eventually transitioning into production and more recently into the purchase and revival of heritage perfume houses.

Although immersed within the perfume industry from a young age, Michele expected that each family member joining the company start their respective roles from the bottom up, giving them a broad knowledge within the group. Today the three siblings each have a creative role: Gianluca Perris is the founder and Creative Director of Perris Monte Carlo, the luxury artistic perfumery brand he launched in 2011; his sisters Elisabetta and Consuelo Perris each lead a heritage brand with a remarkable story of rebirth. Elisabetta is Creative Director of Houbigant Paris, founded in 1775, while Consuelo heads Alyssa Ashley, the iconic brand launched in 1969.

The link with these two brands goes back to Michele’s day: In 1973, Michele was working as a consultant for Houbigant and established a long-standing friendship with the last descendant of the Javal family and brand’s owner at that time. However a period of difficulties followed that period and the formulations were downgraded, damaging the brand's prestigious image.

Alyssa Ashley is a brand that had seen considerable success in the 1960’s and 1970’s with its iconic unisex Musk Oil. The brand was created in 1969 by Enrico Donati who named it after his daughter. Donati had inherited Houbigant in 1965 and consequently had a working connection with Michele Perris. Consuelo, then aged 11, recalls falling in love with the brand during this period.

The Perris family considered it a matter of urgency and honour to safeguard the legacy of these heritage houses, to not only protect them from corporate acquisition but to rebuild them, constructing a modern approach whilst retaining the foundational elements of their historical significance. They acquired both houses in 2005, after years of decline, with a shared mission: not simply to preserve their names, but to restore their identities and bring them into a new era.

Under Elisabetta’s direction, Houbigant has returned to its roots in luxury and artistic perfumery. Together with Gianluca, she has overseen the restoration of some of the most iconic perfumes of the house, utilising as much as possible the original high-quality raw materials, reinvigorating classic formulations such Fougere Royale (1882) and Quelques Fleurs (1912), enabling perfumes of rare quality to emerge from history into the 21st century.

In 2019 Consuelo officially took over complete creative and commercial direction of Alyssa Ashley as an artistic brand within the mass-market sector. She has brought a fresh creative vision to the brand, retaining its accessibility while placing quality and artistry at the heart of its future.

It was my pleasure to interview Consuelo and Elisabetta Perris. Their respective career paths before entering the Perris group of companies, Elisabetta was in Marketing and Consuelo, Psychology, giving them the skills and expertise to apply within the family business.

During our conversations we discussed a number of relevant issues pertaining to the Niche/Artisanal perfume world today. Consuelo mentioned the importance of maintaining a brand's DNA and historical authenticity in an oversaturated perfume market and that "slow perfumery"—prioritizing quality and historical depth over rapid commercial trends—creates a stronger emotional connection with consumers. She also distinguished "artistic perfumery" from "commercial perfumery," noting that the latter is driven by marketing studies and trends, whereas artistic perfumery is driven by the artist's passion and long-term vision.

In consensus with Elisabetta, Consuelo answered for their joint vision.

DS - How do you strike the balance between respecting your family's established heritage in the Perris Group and driving your own modern vision for the business?

CP – One of the core values that has always guided our family is a strong focus on product quality and a deep understanding of the consumer. This applies not only to our perfumery business, but also to the other sectors in which the Group is involved, from pharmaceuticals to high-tech. I believe these values are more relevant today than ever. Consumers need to be able to trust a brand, and that trust can only be built and sustained when a brand consistently delivers quality products. In this sense, respecting our heritage does not mean looking backwards. It means carrying forward values that remain profoundly contemporary and applying them to the way we do business today.

DS - What frameworks or boundaries do you use to separate family dynamics from boardroom decisions, especially when working closely with siblings or parents?

CP – Working with family can be complicated because family dynamics can very easily become intertwined with professional ones. My siblings and I grew up in a family-business environment, so from a very early stage we learned to distinguish between these two worlds. We try to work professionally, with clear objectives, so that our interactions and decisions are driven more by rational considerations than by emotions. In other words, we make a conscious effort to keep family dynamics outside the office.

At the same time, there is a strong sense of mutual respect and esteem among us, and I believe this is fundamental to maintaining both good personal relationships and an effective professional relationship.

DS - Fragrance houses often rely on historic family legacies traditionally led by men. What specific challenges or advantages have you experienced as women leading a multi-brand luxury enterprise?

CP – Within our organisation, we have always tried to think first and foremost in terms of people rather than gender. I believe interpersonal differences are often far greater than gender differences, and our approach has therefore been to recognise and make the most of each person's individual strengths, sensitivities and expertise. We work very much as a team, creating an environment in which everyone's qualities can contribute to the whole. In this sense, our credibility internally has been built through competence, mutual respect and collaboration. Externally, I believe our credibility is demonstrated by the professionalism of our approach and by the work itself.

DS - How has being a woman shaped your approach to management, creative direction, and strategy in a competitive industry?

CP – I would not attribute my approach exclusively to being a woman. I think it has much more to do with my personality and my cultural and professional background.

I trained as a clinical psychologist, so my instinctive approach to fragrance has always been to focus on its emotional dimension: what fragrance communicates, what it evokes, and the relationship it creates with the person wearing it. Interestingly, when Michele had to divide responsibilities for the different brands among us, he took our individual personalities very much into account. Houbigant, a house that represents French elegance and good taste, was entrusted to my sister Elisabetta, who is undoubtedly the most aesthetically sensitive of the three of us. Perris Monte Carlo, where the research into raw materials involves an almost technical and scientific investigation, was entrusted to Gian Luca, who is the most precise and meticulous in this respect. Alyssa Ashley, a brand connected to a more emotional and transgressive world, was entrusted to me because I am naturally more attentive to emotional dynamics.

Of course, we constantly exchange ideas and help one another, each bringing our own specific expertise. But from the beginning, each of us has embraced the brand whose identity is naturally closest to our own way of being.

DS - With multiple portfolios under the Perris Group (like Houbigant, Perris Monte Carlo, or Alyssa Ashley), how do you allocate creative energy and ensure each brand maintains a clear, distinct identity?

CP – The starting point is precisely the identity of each brand. As I mentioned, the responsibilities within the family were originally divided in a way that reflected both the specific identity of each house and our individual personalities and areas of expertise. This creates a very natural form of creative focus. Elisabetta's aesthetic sensitivity is closely aligned with Houbigant; Gian Luca's precision and technical approach with Perris Monte Carlo; and my interest in emotional dynamics with Alyssa Ashley. At the same time, we are constantly in dialogue. We exchange ideas and contribute our individual expertise to one another's work, while remaining very conscious of the fact that each brand has its own history, language and identity. The objective is not to make the brands resemble one another, but to help each of them express its own identity as clearly as possible.

DS- Perfume is inherently emotional and subjective. How do you translate your personal experiences or intuition as women into fragrances that resonate globally?

CP – For me, perfume is an extraordinarily powerful form of communication. Our scent says something about us even when we are not consciously aware of it. With Alyssa Ashley, I try to create a simple and coherent way of communicating our emotions, our moods and who we want to be at a particular moment through fragrance.

Emotional states belong to a universal language. In a sense, they are almost archetypal. This is precisely why fragrance can be so personal and, at the same time, resonate across very different cultures and markets.

DS - How do you keep historic heritage brands fresh for younger, modern consumers without diluting their original prestige?

CP – Today, I believe the most important thing is to remain coherent with a brand's DNA. That coherence is what gives a brand credibility and allows consumers to understand who it really is. We have seen many brands try to imitate a particular style or trend simply because it was successful at that moment, even when it had very little to do with their own identity. In many cases, this has not worked.

For me, the key is first to understand exactly what the brand you are responsible for represents, and then to remain coherent with its history, its narrative and its identity. Being contemporary does not necessarily mean changing who you are.

DS - What advice would you give to the next generation of women aspiring to take leadership roles in family-owned luxury businesses?

CP- I think one of the problems women have faced in business is the belief that, in order to be competitive, they had to change themselves and conform as closely as possible to a stereotype of the male manager. Paradoxically, men themselves could sometimes be freer from that stereotype than women were. My advice would be to remain yourself and to develop your projects according to your own passions, qualities and individual characteristics. We cannot succeed by trying to be someone else.

DS- What challenges do you encounter as part of a family enterprise and also as a female entrepreneur?

CP – I think the greatest challenge for a family business today is the extraordinary speed of change. By nature, family businesses are deeply rooted in know-how. That know-how comes from years of experience, history and an intimate familiarity with the business. I often say that my siblings and I grew up on “milk and perfume”. There is an enormous value in that accumulated knowledge.

At the same time, however, family businesses can naturally be less quick to change direction. In a world where everything moves and is consumed at the speed of light, this can sometimes make it more difficult for us to move our projects forward at the same pace. As a woman, one of my personal challenges is perhaps learning to channel the eclecticism that often characterises us. Sometimes maintaining absolute focus on one project becomes difficult when you keep falling in love with all the new discoveries happening around you! There is also a growing need for consumer education around the quality and cost of premium raw materials which in turn drives up costs, education on the difference between authentic materials and synthetic alternatives is imperative.

DS- What projections do you have for the future of historic houses, artisan perfumery, niche perfumery going forward?

CP - I believe the concept of artistic perfumery will become increasingly important. Historic houses have something extremely valuable today: credibility. In the very confused and fast-moving world we live in, consumers increasingly appreciate brands that can communicate a genuine history and remain coherent with it. At the same time, I believe artistic perfumery will increasingly be recognised not simply as “niche perfumery”, but as a form of authored perfumery: perfumery defined by a distinctive vision, expertise and creative approach.

This is also why I consider Alyssa Ashley to be unquestionably a brand of artistic perfumery. Its history, the approach we take to creation, our expertise and the perfumers we collaborate with fully justify that definition. For me, artistic perfumery is ultimately about the culture, knowledge and creative vision behind a fragrance.

In discussing the next progressions, it may be that we see the transition from perfume as a "signature" luxury item to a mood-based accessory, with a future trend toward personalized perfumes.

Perris Group is a prime example of a cohesive family enterprise with a wealth of experience and historical relevance behind it, working together with mutual respect, Consuelo and Elisabetta continuing along with Gian Luca to drive forwards with dynamism, yet always conscious of the legacies from the past, reinvigorating history and sympathetically nurturing the future.