MUSE DIOR

“Look, here’s Miss Dior!” could be heard backstage, at 30 Avenue Montaigne, in 1947. In an instant, Catherine Dior – nicknamed “Miss Dior” by the divine, feline Mizza Bricard – became a legend. With Madeleine, her mother, and Christian, her elder brother to whom she was very close, she shared a passion for nature: flowers were at the heart of her life, an expression of her steadfast, lifesaving love of beauty, of invincible spring that always returns anew. Season after season, Catherine Dior lived (from) her passion. She sold bouquets at the Les Halles market in Paris and spent her vacations working in the fields of Callian, in the Var region of France, among roses, jasmine and other plants she cultivated. Both a muse and a member of the Resistance, Monsieur Dior’s “dear sister” had uncommon strength of character and embodied a powerful, free and audacious femininity. Her fierce determination, immense courage, unwavering loyalty and irreverent style make her a model par excellence, one of the first faces of Dior, the original Miss Dior. An elegance of living.

In tribute to her, what better than a signature fragrance that stirs both senses and spirit, a symbolic trail that embraces an entire world, a destiny? From the founding of his House, Christian Dior – with the help of Paul Vacher – imagined an essence of sensual chypre that conjures the olfactory picture of a dream garden. At a time when the New Look had just triumphed, Miss Dior appeared as the manifesto of a new femininity, an elixir inextricably associated with that renaissance.

Its purity, ardour and subtlety, as well as its hold and scent, ensured its success. “Miss Dior was born of those evenings in Provence, alive with fireflies, where green jasmine plays a descant to the melody of night and the earth,” recalled Christian Dior, revealing the complexity of a fragrance composed like a lush mental landscape. A subtle harmony that opens with notes of citrus, continues with floral freshness and lingers in the woody accords of oakmoss. At the heart of Miss Dior are the Grasse rose, patchouli extract from Indonesia and orange blossom from Tunisia. “The perfume of a sophisticated young woman (...) and brilliant evenings. Light but persistent, it has the charm of something you wouldn’t consider taking seriously at first, and which imposes itself little by little.” Thus Miss Dior is described in a precious archival document dated 1956, in words echoing those of Catherine Dior, for whom Miss Dior will “be the House’s eternally youthful perfume”. An adage that characterizes its intention, now reconsidered by Francis Kurkdjian like an ode to youth.

Celebrating all women, Miss Dior is also a feat of couture. Reflecting virtuoso craftsmanship, its bottle is engraved with a houndstooth motif; a dagger knot delicately adorns its collar. Revisited ad infinitum, the flacon has been transformed into an art object: as early as 1952, as sketched by Fernand Guéry-Colas, it took the shape of Bobby, Christian Dior’s loyal dog. More recently, it has been reinterpreted by artists including Eva Jospin.