Scent Stories

Diptyque CEO Laurence Semichon on preserving the brand's artistry while refining its iconic candles.

- By JHANVI DUGGAL

With over four decades of olfactory storytelling, Diptyque has built a legacy rooted in artistry, memory, and a distinct sense of place. No matter the year or the trend, Diptyque continues to dominate all of our wish lists and our olfactory senses with authentic scents as well as with their reiterations. This year, a revamped set of their classic candles is on the cards. We sit down with Laurence Semichon, CEO, Diptyque, for a deep dive into the Maison’s new launch and the art of staying timeless.

Harper’s Bazaar: You’ve stepped into this role at a time when the brand is trying something new. What felt most important to preserve, and what felt ready to evolve?

Laurence Semichon: What felt most important to preserve was Diptyque’s singular nature as a house of creation. Since 1961, at 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Diptyque has cultivated a world of its own, born from the friendship and artistic complicity of Desmond Knox-Leet, Christiane Montadre-Gautrot, and Yves Coueslant. From the beginning, the Maison has never separated fragrance from drawing, object from imagination, or decoration from emotion. What matters deeply to preserve is precisely this creative freedom: the idea that a fragrance is never just a fragrance, and that an object is never purely functional. What felt ready to evolve was not the identity, but the way it continues to inhabit the present. With the candle revamp, for example, the intention was never to change what makes the object instantly recognisable. It was to refine it with precision and humility.

HB: Tell us about the composition of the revamped candles, and the inspiration behind it.