It all started when three friends resolved to pool their artistic talents, tastes and insights in order to set up a business in their own image. Christiane Montadre was a designer, Desmond Knox-Leet an artist, and Yves Coueslant a stage designer and manager. In 1961 their different personalities, origins and tastes all found expression in the boutique that they opened at 34 boulevard Saint-Germain, in the Maubert quartier of Paris. In the beginning they sold only their own work and fabrics, either plain or printed to their own designs; in the face of the vagaries of the marketplace, however, they soon took the decision to branch out in new directions. With their shared love of travel and of the excitement of discovery, the three friends gradually filled the shop with a great wealth of unusual and original objects, always selected according to their own highly individual criteria. It was this elegant eclecticism that was to form the creative essence of the Diptyque style. Their first three perfumed candles, The (Tea), Cannelle (Cinnamon) and Aubepine (Hawthorn), created in 1963, proved immensely popular; more candles followed, together with eaijx de toilette, soaps, toilet vinegars and pots pourris. From their success Diptyque Parfumeur was born, under the black-and white logo that is so familiar today.<BR>This is the story that Elisabeth de Feydeau relates in this book, the history of a creative enterprise and business success, interwoven with the personal journeys of the three friends whose personalities and tastes lie at its heart.