“One night in Paris my girlfriend spontaneously wore her perfume box as a clutch bag,” recalls Kilian Hennessy, the parfumier and scion of an LVMH founder. He’s referring to one of the black wooden lacquered boxes in which each of his By Kilian scents are elegantly housed. “She received so many compliments that night that I decided to make an entire collection!”

Each design goes under the heading “Night Fetishes By Kilian,” and shares suggestive appellations with some of Hennessy’s already established fragrances: Invitation, Don’t Be Shy, Aphrodisiac, Prohibited, and Surrender. “They’re all sexy, nighttime names,” he says, “so they fit the theme perfectly.” Crafted from sleek, black Plexiglas for the sharp geometric edges and mirrored glaze the material affords, the clutches imbue a seventies disco-era decadence—something like Tom Ford’s elegant evening minaudières—and are right on cue for next spring’s most heavily referenced decade.

Ask Hennessy about his influences, however, and it’s a much earlier time he’ll tell you about: “I love the work of Art Deco jewelry designers Jean Despres, Jean Georges Fouquet and Gérard Sandoz,” he reveals, “but the trick is always to take inspiration from the past and shape it into something contemporary.” With spare geometric adornments—circular stingray discs, sliding paladium metal locks, and the subtle dotted sequences of Swarovski crystals—Hennessy’s clutches counterbalance old glamour and modern austerity beautifully (see Prohibited, Red Edition, above). Then there’s the Florentine factory where each piece is artfully handmade: “It’s the same company that Coco Chanel used,” he says proudly. “When the owner saw Aphrodisiac, she said it would be a future classic!”