A Nose DIVIDED

Legends are never made by playing it safe. 

- APRIL LONG

The unveiling of a new perfume typically goes like this: Beauty editors and influencers are invited to an exclusive meet-and-greet, where they sniff blotter strips spritzed with the eau du jour. They wave the samples under their discerning noses and make polite sounds of pleasure. Everyone is happy, if noncommittal. There’s a new perfume in the world, and it’s… pretty good.

At the Paris launch of the latest Dior La Collection Privée perfume, held in a vaulted white room within the Palais de Tokyo, things went a little differently. When Dior perfumer Francis Kurkdjian handed out blotters of New Look, his latest creation for the house’s prestige fragrance line, there were two very distinct reactions. Some sniffers’ eyes lit up as though a switch had been thrown, their expressions registering a joyful hit of something unforeseen and ineffably wonderful. Others put the blotters down quickly, brows furrowed with bewilderment. Clearly, we were in the presence of something exciting: a genuinely polarizing scent.