Zadig & Voltaire

Zadig & Voltaire is a French fashion house founded in Paris in 1997 by Thierry Gillier, the son of André Gillier, who co-founded Lacoste [6]. The company took its name and much of its outlook from Voltaire's 1747 philosophical novella Zadig, or The Book of Fate [6]. It built its identity around an edgy, rock-and-roll-inspired style, using recurring motifs such as skulls and angel wings across women's, men's and children's collections, and became known for silk shirts, leather jackets and torn denim.

Within that fashion business sits the fragrance line that Zadig & Voltaire is known for on the beauty side. Perfume is produced under licence rather than in-house, and since 2014 that licence has been held by Beauté Prestige International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shiseido group [7]. The house remains active and global, operating its own stores and, in 2025, expanding through the co-founders' acquisition of the jewellery brands Maison Poiray and Aurélie Bidermann [6].

Thierry Gillier launched Zadig & Voltaire in Paris in 1997. According to the company's own account, it set out to be a "defiantly contemporary" designer brand that "writes its own rules," drawing on contemporary art for inspiration and pitching a style it describes as "quite simply effortless." The house frames that look as the product of contrast — softness against strength, masculinity against femininity — and says it sits alongside a tradition of elegance while encouraging individual uniqueness.

The name points back to Voltaire's 1747 novella Zadig, or The Book of Fate, and the brand has tied its ethos to that literary reference from the start.

Zadig & Voltaire entered the perfume market in 2009 with Volume 1, a unisex fragrance developed by an in-house team [9]. A year later, in September 2010, it moved fragrance production to an external partner, signing a licence with the Clarins Fragrance Group [9].

The current arrangement dates to 23 June 2014, when Beauté Prestige International — described in Shiseido's announcement as the group's wholly owned subsidiary — signed a 15-year licence covering the creation, production and worldwide distribution of Zadig & Voltaire perfumes [7]. In 2016 the house launched This is Her!, an oriental-vanilla women's fragrance that became its signature scent [8].

Over the same period the brand built a run of high-profile associations: Bella Hadid became its face in 2017, and Kate Moss collaborated on the Kate bag in 2018 [6]. In January 2024 artistic director Cecilia Bönström departed and Thierry Gillier took on the role himself.

The fashion house is independent; the identity of any parent company for the apparel business is not stated in the available sources. The fragrance business, by contrast, runs on the licensing model common to designer perfume: Beauté Prestige International, part of Shiseido, holds the rights to develop and distribute the scents under the 15-year agreement signed in 2014 [7]. In 2025 the founders extended the group's reach into jewellery by acquiring Maison Poiray and Aurélie Bidermann [6].

The company organises its outlook around what it calls the "French Spirit of Freedom." It names three core values — freedom, uniqueness and high standards — and describes freedom as "our driving force, our raison d'être, our constant goal." Founder Thierry Gillier has summed up the brand in a single line: "Zadig&Voltaire means freedom." The house positions its output at the prestige end of the market, describing its goods as luxury products.

On the beauty side, the line centres on two fragrance pillars: This is Her! for women and its counterpart This is Him! for men. This is Her!, launched in 2016, is an oriental-vanilla scent created by perfumers Sidonie Lancesseur and Michel Almairac [8]. A newer pillar, simply called ZADIG, is an amber-floral eau de parfum built on roasted vanilla, orange blossom, sandalwood and a "creamy roasted sesame" note; the company sells it in a refillable, wing-shaped bottle and casts it as "the ultimate Zadig&Voltaire fashion accessory." The ZADIG scent was composed by Amandine Clerc-Marie and Florian Gallo of dsm-firmenich.

This is Her! has drawn attention from fragrance reviewers, some of whom have called it the perfume they "get the most compliments on," per community and editorial summaries [8]. The house also connected itself to well-known figures in fashion, from Bella Hadid as its face to Kate Moss's bag collaboration.

Zadig & Voltaire groups its environmental and social commitments under a programme it calls VoltAIRe, which the company says guides its pledge to respect "men, women, animals and the environment." Its stated ambitions include sourcing 100% of key raw materials as certified sustainable, eliminating virgin plastic made from fossil fuels, and using packaging made entirely from certified sustainable, biobased or recycled and recyclable materials. The brand reports being committed to 100% certified organic cotton, and says all of its store bags and e-commerce boxes are made from certified paper or cardboard and are fully recyclable. These commitments describe the fashion house's textile and packaging operations rather than the separately licensed fragrance line.

Zadig & Voltaire is active and global. It operates its own stores worldwide and sells through major US department stores including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue [6]. Recent activity includes the 2024 leadership change, the 2025 jewellery acquisitions and sustainability targets reported through the end of 2025. Its fragrances continue to appear under the Beauté Prestige International licence, with newer launches such as the ZADIG eau de parfum extending the range.