Czech & Speake

Czech & Speake is an independent, privately owned fragrance and grooming house based in London. It was founded by Frank Sawkins, a former art student and interior designer, who set up a luxury bathroom fittings business and design studio at 88 Jermyn Street in the city's historic gentlemen's-outfitting district. The company dates its founding to 1980; a secondary source records 1978 instead [6][2]. From those bathroom-fittings beginnings the company expanded into fine fragrances, shaving and manicure sets, bath and body products, home scents and leather goods, and it describes itself as one of the last great independent fragrance and grooming brands in Britain.

The house remains London-based and is still owned privately. According to the company, it now has a global presence while continuing to operate as an independent business rather than part of a larger group.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

Sawkins established his bathroom-fittings business and design studio at number 88 Jermyn Street, having spotted an opening in late-1970s England for fittings that combined high quality with a bespoke appeal. The following year he opened a first shop nearby, at No. 39 Jermyn Street, opposite the studio. The street address would prove lasting: the brand's signature fragrance, No.88, takes its name from the studio at number 88, where the scent was later developed.

The company says the name was chosen to be "graphically short but rhythmically contained," and that "88 fitted this perfectly, as well as being our studio address where the design was born" [6]. Sawkins has linked the fragrance to his early visits to New York in the late 1970s, a period he described as a golden one in which he was introduced to artists, photographers and writers.

What began as a design studio for luxury bathroom fittings grew into a broader house covering fragrance, grooming and accessories built around what the company frames as a refined bathing and dressing ritual. An early black 200ml fragrance bottle, designed in the early 1980s, established a visual style the brand still associates with itself.

No.88 has remained the house's best-selling fragrance over several decades [7]. A later eau de parfum interpretation, listed for both women and men, was indexed in 2021 [9]. Sources differ on when the original No.88 first appeared, and the brand's own account and third-party fragrance databases do not agree on the year, so the launch date is treated here as uncertain.

Czech & Speake positions itself as deliberately niche and uncompromising on detail. "Czech & Speake is not a brand everyone wears... Nor should it be," the company writes, adding that "for us luxury is about the finer detail." Its stated approach is to use the finest ingredients and raw materials "at any cost," and it contrasts itself with mass-market production, noting that "the mass market can cut corners. We never have" [2]. The house sums up this stance with the tagline "Designed To Be Different."

The brand describes its audience as connoisseurs of quality. Its fragrances were originally marketed to men but, by its own account and that of editorial coverage, are also worn by women [7].

The house's catalogue spans eau de parfum and eau de cologne, aftershaves, shaving and manicure sets, brush-and-razor sets, hand and body washes, bath oils, and home scents such as candles and incense. Alongside No.88, its fragrance line includes Cuba, Frankincense & Myrrh and Amber 7.

No.88 is built around a blend of bergamot opening into geranium, rose otto, cassia and frangipani, over a base of vetiver and sandalwood [7]. The grooming range extends to gold-plated and 24-carat-gold instrument sets, which have featured in gift guides and men's grooming round-ups.

The company states that "100% of our formulations are vegan and cruelty-free" and that it selects ingredients meeting strict international safety and animal-testing criteria [3]. It operates a refill scheme that, it says, offers a 20 percent saving on a new fragrance and "gives your glass bottle a second life," which it frames as a way to cut packaging waste, greenhouse-gas emissions and water use [3]. The brand also says it is re-evaluating its designs to reduce waste and improve recyclability, citing recyclable shipping boxes and anodised shaving sets as examples.

Czech & Speake products have appeared in lifestyle and men's-grooming coverage. No.88 was featured by Vanity Fair in 2023 and included in The Independent's selection of men's fragrances for that year, where it was described as a "powerhouse woody floral fragrance" [4]. Vogue Singapore featured an eight-piece grooming set with 24-carat-gold instruments in a 2023 round-up, and the Evening Standard included a gold-plated manicure set in a men's grooming guide. The Gentleman's Journal, in an editorial feature, called the house a "fine British brand" and described No.88 as a "classic scent" [7].

The brand is active. It runs e-commerce storefronts for the EU, US and UK, maintains a current refill programme, and updated its press page with 2023-era features as of late 2025 [4]. The company describes itself as having a global presence while remaining a London-based, privately owned business [2].