“Castor”, the brightest star in the Gemini constellation, was the code name given to the fragrance before the name Miss Dior was found. Was this a mysterious reflection of the star, found by chance, that was to decide Christian Dior’s destiny? Or rather, was he thinking of the celestial lights that inspired his first fragrance, and that he so loved to contemplate, deep in the jasmine-scented summer nights in Provence?
The legendary and brilliant birth of Miss Dior was a clever blend of instant radiance and sustained mystery. The creation of this first Dior perfume was full of sudden dramatic twists arising from a series of certitudes and hesitations. For above all, Christian Dior wanted a fragrance that would convey his fashions and the spirit of the era.
Miss Dior is the scent of a young generation rediscovering a taste for life. The scent of youth that would become the eternal signature of the founding fragrance, and dazzle alongside its spirit and desires, as it did for the “Miss Dior” ready-to-wear collection that appeared in 1967.
The very first collection of the House dedicated to the young people who were daring enough to wear the pop colours of the sixties revolution, which was then in full swing. Never before had a couturier spoken so much about his first perfume, nor surely, orchestrated so intuitively and so meticulously its stage entrance beneath the spotlights. Since its striking début, Christian Dior’s “only child” as he liked to call it, has travelled through time, continually evolving, without giving up an inch of its youthfulness and its remarkable radiance.
Loved and celebrated, Miss Dior remains the eternally “young” perfume of the House of Dior, as emphasised by Catherine Dior herself.
Today, Francis Kurkdjian is drawing inspiration from this eternal youth, and has taken up its multiple, rich accords. Here is “his” Miss Dior.
Francis Kurkdjian knows that jasmine is gifted with a myriad of harmonious notes: it can be green at the break of day, slightly “orangey” and fruity at the moment it is picked, and often animal at nightfall. For Miss Dior, he wanted to return to its radiant and enveloping, fruity, gourmand facets. Since jasmine was first used in perfumes in the mid-16th century in Grasse, the treatment of this flower has evolved through different processes.
Francis Kurkdjian wanted to return to the characteristic notes linked to the extraction methods used in 1947, when Miss Dior was created. This delightfully fruity and gourmand jasmine, with its notes of strawberry, peach and apricot, was what Francis Kurkdjian had been dreaming of.
Francis Kurkdjian selected an exceptional jasmine for Dior, obtained thanks to an innovative treatment, both in terms of the conditions in which the flower is harvested, and its extraction method. Picked in the month of July, at the beginning of the harvest and at the break of day, the flowers release their green and floral notes, suffused with indole. They are then processed quickly, using a secret extraction process that revives the strawberry, peach and apricot tinged fruity facets, as well as the radiance, of the jasmine extract of yesteryear.
These colourful accords are supported by a sensual and well-constructed woody-amber base. Anchored by a generous, clean Patchouli, a dense and binding Alaskan cedar adds a touch of darkness, while an earthy bed of moss warmly envelops the bold sweet fruits and floral beauty of the fragrance.
“Cut like a suit” with clean lines, the iconic Miss Dior Parfum bottle sees its format reduced as though to better accentuate the intensity of its fragrance. It is even more sophisticated, as its base and sides give free expression to the famous houndstooth pattern engraved in the glass. Still woven in the famous Faure ribbon-makers’ ateliers, the jacquard ribbon is exchanging its floral pattern for a new solid silver background with a luminescent silver lurex thread.
Miss Dior Parfum is available in stores and online at dior.com
£140 80ml
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