A love letter TO LIGHT BLUE

Twenty-five years after Dolce & Gabbana's iconic fragrance changed the way summer smelled, Light Blue returns to Capri like it never left

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TOP NOTE: THE MEMORY

Some fragrances are fleeting companions; others become part of your story. For me, it was Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue: the first fragrance I ever bought with money I had saved from a part-time job in junior college. I was looking for something authentic, something that felt like it was truly mine, not borrowed or overhyped. I remember unboxing the powder blue velvet case in my room, spritzing it on for the first time, and feeling something shift—I felt freer, even flirtier. That bottle was more than just perfume; it represented possibility in 100 millilitres.

So when ELLE India commissioned me to travel to Capri for the relaunch of Light Blue, celebrating 25 years of DG's modern classic, I didn't think twice. It felt like a return to something I'd never really left behind.

Capri is Light Blue's spiritual home, a sun-drenched cocktail of scent, salt, and skin. The campaign's fantasy of white swimwear, salt-slicked skin, and azure waters wasn't just a construct; the island delivered on arrival. As our boat touched the shore, Capri embodied everything Light Blue had promised: heat-soaked and citrus-sweet, with cliffs plunging into surreal blue water.

In Capri, there's no rush. The roads are mostly non-motorable, compelling you to walk the winding slopes. Every turn reveals something new: bursts of bougainvillaea, a Vespa parked against a signpost that reads Baci da Capri (kisses from Capri), chameleons darting across sun-warmed stone, glimpses of blue between buildings, café tables crowded with Aperol glasses glowing like bottled dusk, and big, bright, voluptuous lemons everywhere you looked.