Dioressence

Perfume Chat Room, September 4
by

Perfume Chat Room, September 4

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, September 4, and it is the start of the Labor Day weekend here in the US. The saga continues on the historic district protection we want for our street. That project consumed much of July and August, culminating in our own city councilman stepping forward to kill it before it could reach the full city council. Putting it charitably, he is under huge pressure from the minority of property owners who loudly oppose it, even though a strong majority of owners have signed in support. We haven’t given up yet, though. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working to retain my sanity and sense of perspective by gardening and going to museums. The Savannah College of Art and Design had a fantastic exhibit on Dior, called “Dior: Crafting Fashion.”

It had quite a few of his historic designs; some were original, some were replicas. The exhibit included designs by the notable designers who followed him at Dior, and works that showed the incredible artisanship of the couturières who did the sewing. It also showed the various outlets for his and others’ creativity under the brand name of Dior, such as handbags, hats, gardens, and — perfume!

Limited edition of Diorissimo

As some of you know, I have a passion for Diorissimo and seeking it out in various forms was a major impetus for me to go down the perfume rabbit hole.

Here are some of the highlights, from my POV:

Do you have any favorite Dior fragrances, past or present?

Scent Sample Sunday: Dioressence
by

Scent Sample Sunday: Dioressence

I recently obtained a mini of vintage Dioressence eau de toilette, in a blue-marbled box with a small, squarish splash bottle that resembles the vintage houndstooth bottles of other Dior fragrances from the 1980s. It is so well-suited to the current fickle weather we’re having in mid-February! I love all my spring floral fragrances but I don’t yet feel ready to pull them out again, other than an occasional spritz of Ostara to remind me that the daffodils are on their way. We’ve had weeks of cold and rain, though I’m thankful to have missed the deep freeze and unexpected snowstorms that hit other parts of the country this month. But Dioressence feels right today, as the sun shines brightly over a still-chilly landscape and my garden, where I have new raised beds that are full of soil but not yet planted.

The version I have dates from the 1980s, and it is a 1979 rework of the original, done by Max Gavarry, who worked with Guy Robert to create the original in the 1960s. I love the story of its origins, as told by Luca Turin to Chandler Burr and described in Burr’s book “The Emperor of Scent.” Apparently Guy Robert had been tasked with creating a new scent for Christian Dior that would launch with a new collection of Christian Dior ready-to-wear furs, and the brief was to create something very animalic but related to earlier Dior fragrances like Miss Dior while also contrasting with them. He was wrestling with this problem when he went to a broker’s office in London to assess some real ambergris for potential purchase. Turin’s recounting, via Burr:

Continue reading →