This month marks the launch of the new La Collection Privee fragrance: Vanilla Diorama. The latest of Dior Perfumer-Creator François Demachy’s creation, Vanilla Diorama, is a warm, intimate ode to the charm of Vanilla. “Vanilla is a call to the senses synonymous with instant pleasure in the collective subconscious. With Vanilla Diorama, I wanted to celebrate both this evocative power, as well as the nobility of this rare raw material,” explains François Demachy Dior Perfumer-Creator. “I wanted this scent to be a faithful portrait, to reveal its fragrant, nuanced beauty, and to embody its mellow aspect, heightened by joyful citrus notes, as well as its richer, more organic side, wrapped in an enveloping base. In the end, it is a true, authentic, and intense perfumer’s vanilla that emerges.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior
This delightful fragrance embodies not only Vanilla but also a scent that pays tribute to one of the eponymous desserts that Christian Dior loved to eat—the Maison named the mysterious cake “Diorama.” In collaboration with French Michelin Star Chef Pâtissier Julien Dugourd—known for his incredible pastries—La Collection Privée Christian Dior was able to bring the delectable legend to life, a sumptuous delicacy inspired by the Couturier-Perfumer’s gourmandise. Exclusively for this launch, Chef Pâtissier Julien Dugourd reimagined the famous cake through François Demachy’s new fragrance. And, what could be better than a cake to go with a perfume or a perfume to go with a cake?
“I was given a very loose framework. The starting point, based on the flavours evoked by Christian Dior, in other words, Vanilla, orange, and cocoa, enabled me to set off on an intense and very unconstrained creative process,” reveals Chef Pâtissier Julien Dugourd. “So, I worked with my assistant chef Florent Bigot, and together we began long months of research and trials. From the beginning, I was guided by an idea that was both obvious and ambitious, which was to create a cake that expresses the full refinement of Dior and the unique, exacting standards of luxury that characterise the house.”
The perfect fragrance to welcome fall, Vanilla Diorama fuses the fruity joy of citrus notes dazzle with a blend of Vanilla’s rich and intense charm. The new fragrance adds a rich depth to the Maison Christian Dior perfume collection as Demachy thoughtfully chose a Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, an extraordinary variety from the “vanilla coast” on the northeast of the island. Harvested using traditional artisanal methods, the vanilla pods are briefly blanched in hot water, then “wrapped up” for 24 hours before being dried in the sun for a few hours per day, for two weeks. Carefully hand-sorted, this beautiful black Vanilla is distinguished, more than by a sweet facet, by its elegant power and a slightly animal nobility tinged with woody, amber, spicy and mellow accents, as well as strong warm notes of cocoa.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior
And while nobody today has ever tasted the Diorama cake, this gourmet obsession has become a genuine legend at the heart of the avenue Montaigne house—and in the meantime, we can indulge in the fragrance of Vanilla Diorama.
