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François Coty (May 3, 1874 – July 25, 1934) was a French perfume manufacturer and the founder of the right-wing paramilitary group Solidarité Française.
Coty was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, as Joseph Marie François Spoturno. He married Yvonne Alexandrine Le Baron in 1900. He took the more French-looking name Coty, a variation on his mother's maiden name, when he moved to Paris.
He began by selling essences derived from flowers in Grasse, and then peddled his scents to the barbers of Paris. His genius, however, was in marketing and in recognizing that the bottle made the perfume. He had bottles designed by the great ceramist Lalique. His Rose Jacqueminot scent, in a bottle by Baccarat, was his first great success. His great success, Chypre, gave its name to an entire fragrance family used in the industry's classifications.
He was one of the wealthiest men in France and owned two Paris newspapers, the proletarian L'Ami du peuple and the aristocratic Le Figaro. He also bought the hunting pavilion of Louveciennes near Saint-Germain-en-Laye, once the property of Madame du Barry. He built multiple large residences, but lived in a hotel on the Champs-Élysées.
He was somewhat of a recluse, disliking crowds of any kind, and hiding behind his public image.
The company he founded in 1904 is now Coty, Inc., of New York City.
The Stade François Coty in Ajaccio was named after him.
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