In 2004, an extraordinary perfume collection was born, a celebration of the elegance and excellence of Dior haute couture. Since then, La Collection Privée Christian Dior has continued to grow in every sense of the term: in prestige and in number of compositions, from its ever-expanding savoir-faire to unique fragrances that are perpetually reinvented anew.

In homage to two decades of audacity and creativity, the House has reinterpreted the spirit of its flacons, redefined their lines and imagined a series of exceptional coffrets to further elevate these remarkable scents.

Today, La Collection Privée Christian Dior is also available in even more streamlined and refined formats¹ while caps are decorated with the House’s irresistible iconic prints in an array of colours from blue to red, “the colour of life”, as Christian Dior called it, with – as a highlight – cannage superbly reprised to underscore the elemental ties between the House’s fashions and its perfumes. The instantly recognizable leopard print – a nod to the signature scarf Mizza Bricard, Monsieur Dior’s muse of all muses, was never without – and the Plan de Paris motif, inspired by the Archives and revisited by Maria Grazia Chiuri, gracefully complete this multifaceted personalization, like so many style statements. In a captivating play of tonalities, the shade of the juice matches that of its attire, further accentuating the object’s luminous beauty. An exercise in nuance and contrast. At the heart of this offer is the spirit of couture, transposed into the singularity of the Dior art of perfume. A way of magnifying the noble and inventive olfactory compositions in La Collection Privée Christian Dior and a celebration of the founding couturier’s original vision when, in 1947, he initiated a perfectly harmonious dialogue between his silhouettes and his scents.

To further enhance the range, two vanity trunks and a mini-trunk are embellished in turn with emblematic codes: toile de Jouy – the fabric that covered the walls of Colifichets, Dior’s very first boutique – now reconsidered and modernized by Maria Grazia Chiuri; and houndstooth, a masculine/feminine fabric Christian Dior loved and which he would incorporate into his wardrobes starting in 1948; as well as the signature cannage on the Napoleon III chairs he used for seating guests at Dior shows from the House’s founding; here, too, is the very graphic Dior Oblique created by one of Dior’s successors, Marc Bohan, in 1967 to reflect the effervescence of that time.

Delicately embroidered on canvas, these distinctive emblems adorn three marvellous trunks – subtly stamped with the initials “CD” and the “Christian Dior” seal – that hold, respectively, Les Esprits de Parfum and the Eaux de Parfum² in three custom-made formats. Entirely handmade in the Dior ateliers, these exceptional cases are poetic odes to the virtuosity of the petites mains, the golden-fingered artisans who have been bringing Dior silhouettes to life since 1947.

No less than 14 steps are necessary to make these pieces, among them the cutting and gluing of the fabrics, the adaptation of motifs, the assembly of the leather straps and placement of studs, hinges and metal closures, the application of the lining and the crafting of the metal plate on which the “Christian Dior” stamp is affixed. Every operation entails infinitely precise gestures, calibrated to the millimetre. “Haute couture creations, at a time when mechanics bring us nothing but soulless objects, have taken on the unique character of an objet d’art. They are among the last items made by hand, the human hand whose value is irreplaceable, because it gives creations that which no machine ever can: poetry and life.” Monsieur Dior’s words resonate more than ever with such treasures made with excellence of savoir-faire, which are joined by other objects of desire such as four fragrance cases with an enchanting contemporary shape, also entirely hand-embroidered and complemented by the symbols of the House and the name of its founding couturier³. Each can hold a favourite perfume and become a precious travel accessory thanks to a practical handle for easy transport. An incarnation of “the poetry of the hand”, to quote the late French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, and the magic of couture so cherished by Christian Dior.

A New Olfactory Talisman

“The most important feature of my life – I should be both ungrateful and untruthful if I failed to acknowledge it from the start – has been my good luck. I must also bow to the fortune-tellers who predicted it,” Christian Dior wrote in the opening lines of his autobiography¹.

In a tribute to the couturier’s fascination with superstition and the divinatory arts, Francis Kurkdjian drew his inspiration from Monsieur Dior’s favourite rituals – from tarot cards to clairvoyants – but above all from the good-luck charms he was never without: little gold medallions featuring talismans such as the lily-of-the-valley and a four-leaf clover, the emblematic star that decided his destiny as a couturier² and the small piece of wood that he admitted to touching several times a day. “Christian Dior’s superstition has always touched my heart. It speaks to me because I share it in an atavistic way but also out of personal taste. They’re playful and endearing  habits. Among mine is the sugar cube I usually tuck into my jacket before very important business meetings. The idea came to me just like that, like a sensory self-evidence! Bois Talisman was born of the dazzling encounter of our two superstitions: the sugar in my pocket mixed with the bit of wood that Christian Dior constantly kept in his. From sugar, I moved towards an intense vanilla note deployed in every facet. The magic duo took shape, and Bois Talisman was born.” In this way, the Creative Director of Parfums Christian Dior designed a completely new fragrance to enrich La  Collection Privée Christian Dior, an exhilarating rendezvous expressed at its quintessence with a note of cedarwood and one of precious, subtly nuanced vanilla. “The idea of wood led me to the pencils Christian Dior used for sketching, so I chose a cedarwood accord. I then wanted to organize a dialogue between that accord and the vanilla note by expressing, thanks to several extraction processes, its various qualities, from the sweetest to the most powerful.” A new essence is born, a perfect match for such made-to-measure couture boxes.