Grasse became the centre of the perfume industry almost by accident: it started as a leather tanning town, and since tanned leather had a notoriously unpleasant smell, tanners began scenting their gloves with local flowers and aromatics to make them more appealing, which created a demand for fragrant extracts that eventually outgrew the leather trade itself.

From perfumed gloves to a global industry

By the 16th century, scented leather gloves had become genuinely fashionable among European nobility, partly thanks to figures like Catherine de’ Medici popularising Italian perfumery trends in France. Grasse’s tanners, already skilled at working with aromatic substances to mask leather’s odour, were perfectly positioned to meet that demand, and the surrounding land turned out to have an exceptional climate for growing the jasmine, rose, and orange blossom needed to supply it. Over time, the perfume side of the business became more profitable and prestigious than the tanning itself, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Grasse had shifted almost entirely toward fragrance production.

It’s a good reminder that major industries often emerge from unglamorous, practical origins rather than grand design. Our history of perfume guide covers this transition and other pivotal moments in fragrance history, and the complete guide to perfume has the wider context. That practical shift from mask-and-necessity toward artistry is echoed across much of perfume history, where beauty so often grew out of solving an unglamorous problem first.