Why Did People Used to Think Perfume Was for Women and Cologne for Men?

This split grew largely out of 20th-century marketing rather than any real chemical or historical rule, brands increasingly segmented fragrance by gender through advertising, packaging and language, and “cologne” simply became the word used for men’s marketing while “perfume” stuck with women’s.

How the marketing split actually developed

Historically, both men and women wore fragrance across most of perfume’s long history, with little of the strict gendering we take for granted today. As the commercial fragrance industry grew through the 20th century, particularly post-war, marketing increasingly leaned into gender as a way to segment products and advertising, “cologne” for men’s ranges, “perfume” or “eau de parfum” for women’s, regardless of the actual concentration or formula involved. This had far more to do with selling strategy than any technical distinction.

Why the terms still linger today

Language is sticky, and even as unisex and gender-neutral fragrance marketing has grown considerably, “cologne” still gets used informally to mean “men’s fragrance” in everyday UK conversation, even among people who know the technical definition is different. Our perfume concentrations guide and history of perfume guide cover this, alongside the complete guide to perfume.