Frédéric Malle

As a young man, Malle was more interested in the marketing and art direction side of the perfume business and wanted to emulate the career of Jacques Helleu, the Art Director at Chanel. To this end, he attended New York University where he read Art History and Economics. Upon graduating, Malle worked for several photographers before moving into advertising. He was then offered the role of becoming Jean Amic's assistant at Roure Bertrand Dupont, a company that creates the raw materials used in perfumery. He briefly worked in the UK before returning to France with the aim of becoming "a French Ann Gotlieb", an American woman who acted as a go-between for marketing professionals and perfumers. Finding little success in this field, Malle consulted for Hermès under Jean-Louis Dumas, before doing the same for Christian Lacroix at LVMH. During his time with Dumas, Malle was sent to perfumery school for two months where he learned from perfumers such as Françoise Caron, Edouard Flechier & Jean Guichard. Following this, Malle went on to launch his own perfume house Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.

Frédéric Malle was born in Paris and is the son of Marie Christine Hetfler-Louiche and Jean-François Malle. Marie was the former Art Director at Parfums Christian Dior, whilst Jean-François was a film producer who worked alongside his brother, director Louis Malle. In addition, Malle's maternal grandfather is Serge Heftler-Louiche who in 1947, created the Parfums Christian Dior line for the fashion house with the launch of the perfume Miss Dior. He has a brother, Guillaume.

Malle lives on Fifth Avenue, New York with his wife Marie: they have four children, Louise, Lucien, Paul and Jeanne.