Pepe Jeans

Pepe Jeans is a British denim and casual-wear brand founded in London in 1973 [3]. Within beauty it is present through a licensed fragrance line marketed as Pepe Jeans London, a range of eaux de toilette, eaux de parfum and body mists produced under license rather than by the fashion company itself. The apparel brand remains active and operates at scale; its scent collection is likewise current, with new launches recorded as recently as May 2026 [5].

The fragrances are a licensed extension of the clothing brand, so most of the identity below — the founding, the founders and the corporate ownership — belongs to Pepe Jeans London, while the perfumes are made and distributed by separate licensee companies.

Pepe Jeans began in 1973 as a weekend stall at Portobello Road Market in London, selling denim. It was founded by the Shah brothers — Nitin, Arun and Milan — together with Farook Jamal [3]. Trade coverage credits Nitin Shah with leading the venture alongside his brothers. The business grew from the market stall to a Carnaby Street store and then expanded across Europe during the 1980s, remaining under the ownership of the Shah brothers and Jamal into the late 1980s.

The Portobello Road origin has stayed part of the brand's story, and the later body-mist fragrance collection is named directly after the London market where the company started.

Ownership sits at two levels, and sources describe it differently depending on which level they address. Wikipedia lists the parent as M1 Group, a holding company based in Beirut, Lebanon [3]. The trade publication The Spin Off instead names AWWG, a global fashion group headquartered in Madrid that also owns Hackett and Façonnable, as the group that runs Pepe Jeans [4]. These are not contradictory: M1 Group is identified as the holding parent, while AWWG is the operating fashion group. The current corporate headquarters is in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain.

The 2015 change of control brought in this structure. In February 2015, Pepe Jeans — along with Hackett London — was acquired by M1 Group and L Capital Asia, a subsidiary of LVMH [3].

The fragrance business is licensed separately from the clothing, and here too the sources name different companies. The current global licensee is given as Tailored Perfumes, which is described as running the line and its 2026 launches [5]. The official US fragrance microsite, dated to a 2019 copyright, names Reba Americas, LLC as the distributor of the fragrances in that market [2]. The two appear to reflect different markets and periods rather than a single disputed fact.

The licensed fragrances are positioned around youthful confidence and denim-led individuality, extending the clothing brand's identity into scent. On its licensee page the line is summed up with the tagline "Fragrances that know no limits," and the collection is framed around audacity, self-confidence and celebrating youth. The US fragrance site describes the range in similar terms, inviting customers to celebrate life "in Pepe Jeans way: vibrant, inspiring, fun and characterful." The clothing brand itself continues to describe denim as central to its identity, calling it the canvas for every style and attitude.

The fragrance line spans men's and women's scents and a growing body-mist collection. Earlier releases include the men's cologne So Bold, dated 2023 [5], and paired his-and-hers ranges such as Cocktail, Celebrate and London Is Coming listed on the US site.

The most recent activity centres on the Portobello Road body mists, introduced for Spring 2025 and named after the London market tied to the brand's origin [7]. The collection has grown to include mists such as Boho Breeze, Vintage Vibes, Golden Hour and Colourful Chaos, and in May 2026 it added two further scents, Sunny Walk and Urban Stories, released under the Tailored Perfumes license [5]. No hero ingredients, certifications or sustainability commitments are documented in the available sources.

The fashion brand has drawn celebrity associations that also lend visibility to the wider name. Dua Lipa was appointed a global ambassador for the apparel brand in 2019. For its 50th-anniversary "W11 Love From London" campaign in 2023, the company named model Lila Moss as an ambassador. The Spin Off reported at that milestone that Pepe Jeans generated roughly €500 million in annual retail value through about 350 owned stores and 3,400 points of sale [4].

Pepe Jeans is active. The clothing brand marked its 50th anniversary in 2023 and continues to operate internationally, and the licensed fragrance line remains in production, with its most recent recorded launch — the Sunny Walk and Urban Stories body mists — dated May 2026 under the Tailored Perfumes license [5].