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Eight and one for Bob...

WORLD Beauty Store has hand crafted a unique selection of niche fragrances from all over the planet, and from throughout time.  What brings us to each new scent?  Often it can be the unusual use of a formerly unknown ingredient or the original combination of two favourite notes.  It can be the mood it puts us in when we first smell a fragrance, or it can the look and feel of the bottle.  Just like any customer surveying the shelves at WORLD Beauty we find inspiration and follow it with intrigue...sometimes that intrigue falls behind the scent and we follow the story all the way to the scent.  One such story is that of Eight and Bob....



Albert Fouquet, the son of a Parisian aristocrat, was part of elite French society in the early twentieth century and a perfume connoisseur. In a room on the upper floor of the family chateau, Fouquet created and perfected various essences for his own personal use – aided by Philippe, the family butler.

At social events he would surprise everyone with an exquisite fragrance that became increasingly in demand within the exclusive social circle he frequented. However, Fouquet continually rejected proposals to market his fragrance.

One night during his summer vacation in 1937 on the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), Albert met and got on very well with a young American student who was touring France in a convertible. Within minutes of being introduced, the vain American was captivated by the essence that Albert wore. The American’s charm and congeniality persuaded Albert to leave him a sample of his cologne with a note at the hotel the following morning: “In this bottle, you will find the dash of French glamour that your American personality lacks.”

On returning from his vacation, Albert received a letter from this young charming American thanking him for the kind gesture and informing him of the success his perfume was enjoying among his friends in the U.S.A. He requested that Albert send him eight samples, “and if your production allows, another one for Bob”.  Albert didn't quite understanding the request, but perhaps filling in the detail that Bob, was in fact Bobby Kennedy and the young charming American student was John.F.Kennedy - will help us understand. 

Albert decided to send a box with sufficient samples to offset the transport costs. His perfectionism extended not only to the fragrance but everything surrounding it. He didn’t fill the order until Philippe found some beautiful glass bottles in a Parisian pharmacy that Albert considered suitable for his cologne. Finally, he ordered several boxes decorated with the same pattern as the shirt that JFK was wearing when they met, and then labeled the bottles and boxes with John's amusing request: “EIGHT & BOB”.

Albert was surprised a few months later when he began receiving letters from America with requests from various Hollywood directors, producers, and actors such as Cary Grant and James Stewart.

Everyone wanted the “EIGHT & BOB” cologne they had apparently discovered through John's father, who had maintained relationships with well-known stars because of his previous business ventures in the movie industry.

Unfortunately, the success of his cologne would not spread much further. In the spring of 1939, Albert died in an automobile accident near Biarritz (France). Philippe, the only person who could handle the orders, would only continue with the work for a few months, since the start of World War II forced him to leave his job with the Fouquet family. In the final shipments, Philippe hid the bottles inside books that he carefully cut by hand to prevent the Nazis from seizing the cologne.

Decades later, thanks to the family of Philippe the butler, the formula for “EIGHT & BOB” has been completely recovered, along with its carefully crafted production process. Once again, it has become one of the most exclusive colognes, preferred by the world’s most elegant men.

This incredibly absorbing and alluring story took WORLD buyers all the way to smell 'Eight & Bob' for the first time in Milan, Italy in early 2014 and since then we have become wholehearted converts to this truly glamourous fragrance.

 

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