Knize Ten Toilet Water

Last updated: 22 October 2026

What it smells of

Leather and tar, with citrus and flowers over them. That is Labour and Wait's own summary and it is a fair one. In practice the opening is bright and slightly bitter, the middle turns floral in a dated and deliberate way, and what settles is the leather, which stays for hours.

The leather note in a fragrance of this period comes from birch tar, a distillate that smells of smoke, hide and creosote. It is the same material that makes Russian leather bookbindings smell as they do, and it is the reason Knize Ten reads as a room rather than a person to anybody used to modern designer scents.

It is a strong thing and it does not hide. One spray is a decision.

Knize, and the year

Knize is a Viennese tailoring house at Graben 13, in the first district, with a second address on Braunerstrasse. It made riding clothes and formal tailoring for a clientele that expected both. The fragrance was made for the shop rather than for a perfume counter.

The year is 1924, which is documented across the fragrance reference sources and was marked by a hundredth-anniversary review in 2024. The composition is credited to Francois Coty, the most important perfumer of the era, working with Vincent Roubert.

Labour and Wait repeat the first-fragrance-for-men claim carefully, as something Knize Ten is "thought to be" rather than something proven. That is the right way round. Men had worn scent for centuries; what was new in the 1920s was marketing one to them as a men's product, and Knize Ten is among the earliest to do it.

The bottle, and Adolf Loos

The design of the flacon is attributed to Adolf Loos, and attributed is the word to use. Labour and Wait write it that way, and so do we.

What is not in doubt is that Loos designed the Knize shop on the Graben, between 1910 and 1913. It made his argument in public: a dark polished facade, no applied ornament, a compressed entrance opening into a tall interior. Loos had published Ornament and Crime in 1908, and the Knize shopfront is that essay built.

So the association between the house and the architect is solid, documented and worth knowing. The bottle is the part that rests on attribution rather than record.

Toilet water, and what the strength means

The name on the bottle is toilet water rather than eau de parfum, and that describes a lower concentration of fragrance oil in alcohol. In a modern range that would usually mean a shorter wear.

It does not follow here, because the materials are heavy. Birch tar and the leather accord sit low and last, so the thing outstays a lot of stronger-sounding scents. Anybody expecting a light citrus cologne because of the label will be surprised by the afternoon.

Who to buy it for

Someone who wears one fragrance rather than six. Someone interested in the 1920s, in Vienna, or in Loos. Anybody who has ever said that modern scents all smell the same, because this one settles that argument in about ten seconds.

It is a bad blind buy for somebody with no history of liking leather scents, and £70 is enough money for that to matter. If the recipient is unknown territory, our piece on what the very rich actually wear has gentler places to start, and Juniper Ridge covers a completely different approach to making a scent out of a place.

A note on wearing it

Apply less than you think. A 1924 formula was made for a world with fewer scented products in it, and a full modern application in an open-plan office is antisocial rather than characterful.

It suits cold weather. Leather and smoke in July is heavy going, and the same fragrance in November is the reason people keep buying it a century later.

Buy Knize Ten at Labour and Wait, £70

Knize Ten FAQs

What does Knize Ten smell like?

Leather and tar, with citrus and flowers above them. The leather comes from birch tar and it is what lasts. It reads as smoky, dry and slightly bitter rather than sweet.

How much is it in the UK?

£70 for 50ml at Labour and Wait, checked on 6 September 2026.

When was Knize Ten created?

1924, by Francois Coty and Vincent Roubert, for the Viennese tailoring house Knize. Its centenary was marked in 2024.

Is it really the first men's fragrance?

It is thought to be among the first composed specifically for men, which is how Labour and Wait put it and how we would put it. Men wore scent long before 1924; marketing one to them as a men's product was the newer idea.

Did Adolf Loos design the bottle?

The bottle design is attributed to him rather than documented. What is certain is that Loos designed the Knize shop on the Graben in Vienna between 1910 and 1913, which is one of his best-known buildings.

What is the difference between toilet water and eau de parfum?

Concentration. Toilet water carries less fragrance oil in more alcohol. It usually means shorter wear, although the heavy leather materials in this one make it last longer than the label suggests.

Is it unisex?

It was made and sold as a men's fragrance and it is still described that way. Nothing about a leather and citrus composition is inherently gendered, and plenty of people wear it regardless of what the box says.

More from CoolCuration

• What perfume do billionaires wear: the scents that cost more than the bottle suggests.
• Juniper Ridge: fragrance distilled from actual plants in actual places, at the other end of the argument.
• Self-care gifts: presents for the bathroom shelf rather than the mantelpiece.
• Boy Smells: a modern take on ignoring the men's and women's counters entirely.
• Gifts for a lifetime: things that were made properly and stayed made properly.

Prices and stock change. Everything here was checked on 6 September 2026 against Labour and Wait's own product page, which is the source for the notes, the perfumers and the Loos attribution. The house itself is at Knize, Graben 13, Vienna. The 1924 date is consistent across the fragrance reference sources, and Persolaise marked the centenary with a hundredth-anniversary review in January 2024.

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