Remembering Carmen de Tommaso: Founder of Carven

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Carmen de Tommaso, the founder of Carven, died a year ago today, a woman who has literally left her ‘mark’ on the world of fashion and fragrance. It is hard to imagine one life achieved so much and left such a legacy. The Spanish fashion designer, based in Paris, felt her business was suffering from her less than Parisian sounding name so in the 1945, having gone through almost the entire alphabet, she substituted the M with a V and the House of Carven was born.

The House of Carven launched with a signature cotton summer dress in a green and white stripe. Whether referring to the stripe or the silhouette, Ma Griffe - my mark, my signature, my label - became an instant hit.  Ma Griffe is the unfortunate victim of continued mistranslation, whilst griffe does literally translate as claw, une griffe is also a signature or a stamp, in couturier terms is a fashion label, as in; ‘elle porte seulement les vêtements qui portent la griffe d'un grand couturier’.

The next year the perfume followed; Ma Griffe was genius in that it was the first fragrance to be marketed to a younger demographic. Ma Griffe’s creator, the perfumer and nose Jean Carles, is also credited with inventing the modern pyramid construction of perfume, where a scent has distinct top, middle and base layers.

Top: Aldehydes, Clary Sage, Galbanum, Bergamot
Middle: Gardenia, Jasmine, Ylang-ylang, Rose
Base: Cinnamon, Tonka Bean, Vetiver

In 1954 to celebrate the liberation of France a decade earlier and in an example of early maverick marketing thousands of samples bottles of Ma Griffe were literally ‘launched’ over Paris, dropped by plane over the city on mini green and white striped parachutes.


We could all do with a day when it rains perfume. Our respect to Carmen de Tommaso and her House of Carven.

Find Carven on the Roullier White website here.

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