Christian Dior Perfume Company

The house of Christian Dior is arguably one of, if not the, most iconic and revolutionary fashion and perfume houses ever. Unfortunately for Dior himself, the road to success was in no way a straight line.

Born to wealthy parents in 1905, Christian Dior lived in the villa Les Rhumbs in Granville, Normandy, where he grew up among nature and developed a love for fine arts. In 1911, the Dior family moved to the 16th arrondissement in Paris, where Christian studied at Paris's Institute of Political Sciences (École libre des Sciences Politiques), despite his desire to attend a school of fine arts. Although he had not been studying in fine arts, Dior was exposed to it through many artists, such as Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, Erik Satie and Henri Sauguet, whom he became friends with through Paris's exotic night-life.

After his military service, Christian Dior and Jacques Bonjean opened their very first art gallery at 34 Rue de la Boétie in Paris, where they exhibited artists such as Paul Klee, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and Raoul Dufy, among many others with financial help from Maurice Dior, Christian's father. Due to the Wall Street crash of 1929, the gallery closed in 1934, leaving the Dior family's fortunes dented, and causing Christian to leave Paris. Four years later, Dior worked as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet and later became Lucien Lelong's assistant with Pierre Balmain.

The Christian Dior Fashion House was founded on October 8th, 1946 at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris. A year later, on the 12th of February, Dior's revolutionary collection, the New Look, was first created, and shook the fashion world. A mere month later, on March 13th, the Christian Dior perfume company was brought into existence and was directed Serge Heftlier-Louiche. Almost a year later, the iconic Miss Dior perfume, by perfumer Paul Vacher was also released.

From then on, the Christian Dior perfume company was flourishing. Famous perfumer for Dior, Edmond Roudnitska created the Diorama, Eau Fraîche and Diorissimo perfumes. Both Miss Dior and Diorama were bottled by the quintessential Cristalleries de Baccarat, and a limited edition bottle for Diorissimo was designed by Christian Dior himself.

On October 24, 1957, Christian Dior passed away of a heart attack in Montecatini, Italy but was buried Callian. Christian's assistant at the time, Yves Sait-Laurent took over the brand until 1960, when he founded his own fashion house.

Unlike many other current perfume houses, Dior is one of the few that has an in-house "nose". The head of Olfactory development at the house of Dior, François Demachy was raised in Grasse, otherwise known as the heartland of perfume. Having an in-house "nose" is what brings exclusivity to Dior's fragrances, as they are experts in perceiving scents. This is especially sought after in today's perfume industry as exotic essences are not used very often, however Dior conserves this part of its history by incorporating rare essences such as Arabian Jasmine, Tuscan iris and Calabrian Bergamot into its perfumes.

Research:

“Dior.” The Perfume Society, 23 Apr. 2019, perfumesociety.org/perfume-house/dior/.

Quiqempois, Olivier, et al. Christian Dior: the Spirit of Perfumes. Edited by Dario Cimorelli and Clelia Palmese. Translated by Lisa Richardson, Silvana Editoriale, 2017.