Kate Riordan looks back at the couturier’s life and discovers the inspiration behind the scents of Dior

Christian Dior once said: ‘A woman’s perfume tells you more about her than her handwriting’.

Fragrances and fashion

As the man who championed the wearing of luxury fragrance like no other, he knew what he was talking about. A century on from its founder’s birth in 1905, the house of Dior is as famous for its fragrances as its couture fashion. This is just as Dior himself would have preferred it: to him, a spritz of perfume was the finishing touch to any outfit.

A history of scent

There were some early indications of Dior’s fixation with exquisite fragrances. In the Normandy villa of his childhood, he was just 15 when he built a pergola in the garden and strung it with aromatic boughs of honeysuckle, geranium and rose.

It was around this time that he made a lifelong friend of Serge Heftler-Louiche, who went onto work for Coty, and became Dior’s trusted right-hand man in the perfume business.

Miss Dior

Their first collaboration led to the creation of Miss Dior, named for Christian’s sister Catherine. It was launched in 1947 and, to introduce it to the discerning ladies (and gift-buying gentlemen) of Paris, Dior and Heftler-Louiche made sure the salon at number 30, Avenue Montaigne always smelt of it.

Over a litre of pure fragrance was sprayed in a single week.

Christian Dior's New Look

Dior was determined to inject some unabashed luxury back into war-damaged and depressed Paris and in the same year unveiled his New Look, characterised by cinched, feminine waists and voluminous skirts when everyone else was scrimping on fabric and dressing women like men.

It was actually Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow who coined the ‘New Look’ phrase that has stuck; Dior’s name for the collection was ‘Corolle’ – ‘petal’ in French, another homage to his love of flowers.

Dior's last fragrance

Having seduced Paris, Dior and Heftler-Louiche set their sights on America. To crack this market, they needed to adapt to the lighter eau de Colognes preferred by American women.

Sadly, Dior himself was to witness only one more fragrance, 1956’s Diorissimo – in hindsight it seems fitting that lily of the valley should have been its dominant aroma. Dior’s favourite flower, he would superstitiously sew the blooms into the hems of his gowns before a fashion show.

Poison

Skip forward to 1985 and the Dior brand broke another mould by creating a perfume that would divide consumers into two neat camps: those who loved it and those who hated it. In the words of its composer, Edouard Flechier, Poison was ‘provocative, daring and disturbing’. While restaurants were putting up signs that read, ‘No smoking, no Poison’, undeterred fans were buying one of the amethyst-coloured bottles every five seconds.

J'adore

The 1990s initially saw a shift back to nature and simpler pleasures, heralded in fragrance by 1991’s Dune. But Dior’s trademark glamour was back in 1995, with the rich and sensual Dolce Vita, encased in a curvaceous crystal bottle. This was followed up in 1999 with the fruity-floral J’adore, the second Dior fragrance created by a woman – Calice Becker – who found her inspiration by wandering around St Petersburg’s Hermitage.