![]() Maintaining her neroli’s incredibly fresh, just-picked scent-sweet but green, with a zingy kick that can temper stickier jasmine-is part of the appeal of Parfum d’eau, in which water, which is less volatile than alcohol, is blended with essential oils (neroli, magnolia, jasmine sambac, and a hint of rose), helping to preserve their integrity while creating a milky emulsion. About 1,750 pounds of flower petals yields just a quarter gallon of oil. “I sell exclusively to them,” Archer says, picking the last of the flowers from a monthlong harvest. Courtesy of Parfums Christian DiorĪbout 600 miles south of Paris, in the lush hillside just outside of Cap d’Antibes, Christelle Archer-a sales director turned flower farmer-tends to a 100-year-old bitter orange tree grove as part of an effort to increase transparency and focus on local growers for proprietary ingredients, Dior partnered with Archer in 2017 and began using her neroli oil last year. The original J’adore bottle has been reimagined in opalescent white glass for the neroli-tinged Parfum d’eau. Now, almost 25 years later, the fragrance that helped change the perfume industry is poised for another dose of disruption. “When John started, he didn’t speak French, so he would just say, ‘Oh, J’adore, j’adore, j’adore!’ when he liked something,” Bourdelier recalls. “Galliano was integral to the creation of J’adore,” Bourdelier says of the white-floral fragrance, which began production in 1996, the same year the British-born couturier took over design duty. One of John Galliano’s Maasai-style gold chokers from fall 1997, the inspiration for the fragrance’s gold-wire-wrapped flacon, is displayed close by. That’s the exact temperature needed to preserve the brand’s first suite of refillable lipsticks (from 1953) the first production run of its cult-favorite cuticle savior, Creme Abricot (1962) and different iterations of the iconic J’adore bottle, derived from Monsieur Dior’s 1949 cyclone dress and rendered here in glass prototypes with factory-cut Baccarat necks. It’s 18 degrees Celsius, about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, Frederic Bourdelier, director of brand culture and heritage at Parfums Christian Dior, confirms. "Even after so many years of creating perfume, I was still absolutely amazed, and I’ll never forget the joy I felt at meeting the local growers.When you step into the cosmetics vault at the Christian Dior archives in Paris, just a few blocks from the impressive Avenue Montaigne flagship and gallery that the French house reopened this past March, there are two things you notice right away: the black-walled, marble-floored space is pristine-and slightly chilly on a mid-May morning. That in itself was already an enjoyable adventure, but then there was this magnificent reward at the end, and I finally got to see my favorite ingredient in its natural environment, on these steep slopes," he says. "We took a small plane, then a four-wheel drive, followed by a hike through a few isolated villages in the middle of nowhere. But for Demachy, traveling to Sulawesi, Indonesia to visit the patchouli plantations was by far the most rewarding part of filming Nose. The filmmakers traveled to Grasse, France, which is both Demachy's childhood home and also the home to his creative laboratory at the Fontaines Parfumées. I believe that a scent is like love-you can’t explain it." ![]() "We persist in trying to explain it, describe it and dissect it, but it is never completely defined. "It’s the perfume, more than anything, that is mysterious," Demachy says in a brand interview for the film's release. Directors Arthur de Kersauson and Clément Beauvais spent two years documenting Demachy to uncover some of the mysteries behind perfume ideation and highlight the women who play a key role in the development of raw materials like rose and jasmine. ![]()
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