Cult Beauty - Miss Dior
Whilst it’s always great to celebrate new launches in the beauty world- and there are more than enough of them to do that on this blog every week – there are some cult beauty products we just love to celebrate. Classics that have stood the test of time, maintained their best-selling status, and products that many of us couldn’t live without. So, let’s celebrate one every week!
MISS DIOR
In 1947, fashion designer Christian Dior decided he wanted a fragrance, so he created Miss Dior. That’s 68 years ago! He launched it in December, so it’s the perfect time for us to examine it as my Cult Beauty product of the week.
After the Second World War, and at the same time as he created his ‘New Look’ fashion trend, he wanted to do something more for women, and bring back the smiles that had left them during the long years of conflict. Perfume will do that. Scent lifts our spirits, evokes memories, and makes us feel good.
Christian Dior drew his inspiration from his beloved younger sister, Catherine. She had lived through the bleakest days of war, but retained her spirit, and chose to be full of life and desire. She was full of energy, and the fragrance that was created for her is the same.
Its floral heart makes the powerful jasmine accord shine, and you can smell the rose in there too. It also contains patchouli, to give a rebellious, deeper note to it, and the musky notes of the dry down are classic chypre. On first spray, it is sharp, fresh, and citrus-like, but was created to evolve as a young woman might. The perfume is supposed to personify the “spontaneous joie de vivre of today’s young women, representing a particular type of freedom and seduction”.
The beauty of Miss Dior stems from the harmonious blend of citrus, floral and woody notes, with Chypre base notes. Miss Dior is a promise of love,” says perfumer François Demachy
Christian Dior launched his perfume in 1947, to accompany the first show of his collection that year, and when his sister Catherine appeared in the salon, Dior’s muse, Mitzah Bricard said “Here’s Miss Dior!”. Christian Dior thought it was perfect. Clients and journalists left that show with the scent of the new fragrance on their clothes, skin and hair. Every week at the House of Dior in Paris, over a litre of the pure fragrance was sprayed around!
Nine months after the show, the fragrance launched, originally in a bottle called an amphora – a curvaceous bottle, like an hourglass figure. Over time the bottle has changed, but always retains something of the famous Dior houndstooth check. In this bottle, it can be found on the base.
In the 1970s, when it was bold black and white, over 11 million bottles were sold – a bit different to the first year, when under 300 bottles were made.
As with all fragrances these days, there are lots of different versions of Miss Dior – from Extrait de Parfum, to EDP, to EDT, to complete re-imagining of the scent.
If you know someone with a zest for life, and a love for retro perfumes, then Miss Dior is definitely the festive gift for them.
Miss Dior EDP, 50ml, £63, johnlewis.com
NB. If you want to read everything you ever need to know about a perfume, and then some – its origins, its history, and, well, everything, then just read this brilliant article at fragrantica.com on Miss Dior.
