Indeed, they symbolise Dior\u2019s 24-year-old J\u2019adore Eau de Parfum, and its new, updated version, L\u2019Or de J’adore (which translates to \u2018the gold of J\u2019adore\u2019), a scent crafted by the inimitable and world-renowned French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. The new perfume creation director at Dior, Kurkdjian was tasked with dissecting the composition of J\u2019adore\u2019s universal bouquet, pruning it, and \u2013 like one would melt down gold \u2013 retaining only its purest ingredients. As the second bouquet shows, Kurkdjian zoomed in on the classic J\u2019adore formula, and magnified particular flowers to create a new signature: brilliant, rounded, sensual, smooth, contemporary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of these two bouquets is that they are very different. Here you will have the Eau de Parfum; little flowers, lots of colours,\u201d Kurkdjian explains to GRAZIA, gesturing to the first bouquet. \u201cAnd here you have L\u2019Or de J’adore; bolder and more of a statement, in a way,\u201d he continues, referencing the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important for me to translate the [J\u2019adore] story,\u201d he adds, repeating questions in French to himself, before voicing his considered answers in English. \u201cL\u2019Or de J’adore is a new expression of J\u2019adore. Maybe it\u2019s the most precious one so far. J\u2019adore is about the idea of gold, and [my team and I] started to think about the fact that to get the purest quality of gold, you have to melt it down. When you heat it up, its impurities evaporate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, I asked myself, \u2018What if I was to take the formula of J\u2019adore and heat it up? What would happen to the unnecessary notes?\u2019 Not the impurities, but the non-necessities. What would be left?\u201d<\/p>\n
To truly appreciate this new scent is to understand Kurkdjian\u2019s background, and the great degree of precision in which he worked to unearth another classic for his new house. And, in foraging for gold within such a bouquet, Kurkdjian has experienced another career-defining eureka moment.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Dior.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
An Icon, Reborn
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nJ\u2019adore was released in 1999 and changed the perfume game forever. Under the watchful eye and nose of French perfume master Calice Becker, the resulting blend was so good, it didn\u2019t smell like any one flower. You couldn\u2019t tell if there was more jasmine than rose, or more honeysuckle than violet, or more lily of the valley than tuberose. This universal bouquet went on to become one of the best-selling fragrances in the world \u2013 and we all remember those slinky, golden billboard and television ads starring Academy Award-winning actress and forever muse Charlize Theron.<\/p>\n
But what many may not know is Kurkdjian, now 54, actually worked at the same place as Becker in 1999 as she created J\u2019adore. The pair were employed at Givaudan, a Swiss multinational manufacturer of flavours and fragrances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learnt a lot from watching Calice,\u201d says Kurkdjian. \u201c[At the time] I was practising perfumery for only four years. I was looking at her and how she was taking her meetings, and doing the formula. To me, it was a way to learn things.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne aspect that I kept [from working alongside Calice] was to never give up,\u201d he adds. \u201cShe gave so much, and she made it. She wasn\u2019t expected to win as there were so many amazing perfumers. She\u2019s a little Russian descendent \u2013 strong, tough, rough \u2013 she\u2019s something. So, never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, Kurkdjian went on to craft olfactory delights for the likes of Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Elizabeth Arden, Yves Saint Laurent and Burberry, and in 2009 co-founded his eponymous brand Maison Francis Kurkdjian, which of course is renowned for its cult offering Baccarat Rouge 540.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Kurkdjian\u2019s new appointment at Dior was announced, a title he now holds in addition to being at the helm of his own brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be recognisable as a scent,\u201d Kurkdjian begins, explaining how a cult product is born. \u201cFragrance is always related to beauty, but it\u2019s not a beauty product; it\u2019s not a nail polish; it\u2019s not mascara; it\u2019s not a lipstick, it\u2019s invisible. You can look at a face and say, \u2018Oh you have a beautiful lipstick.\u2019 But if your perfume dies after one or two hours, no one is going to notice it. So, you are spending several hundreds of euros for whom? For yourself in the morning? Fine. But to me, the most beautiful compliment is when someone comes to you and says, \u2018Excuse me, madame, you smell beautiful.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t put a perfume on a shelf and it becomes iconic, it doesn\u2019t work that way,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work to nurture [a future icon]. There are many ways to do it. You can have new muses or change the shape of the bottle. But you have to work on it, you have to make it happen. Because just making a hit? It\u2019s not enough. You need to have the statement signature, the technique, and the brand to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CT.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Mining For The Gold Of J\u2019adore
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nKurkdjian and his team at Dior worked hard on deconstructing J\u2019adore\u2019s formula, playing with scent proportions, and pronouncing only its \u201cnecessary\u201d ingredients. The perfumer says he had 125 modifications and believes if there wasn\u2019t a deadline to get it all completed, he would simply \u201ckeep going on, and on, and on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know [you\u2019ve reached the final composition] when the guy who is the timekeeper tells you it\u2019s time to give the final formula to the factory,\u201d he shares, jovially.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a goal each week to achieve,\u201d he continues. \u201cOne week I would say, \u2018This week it\u2019s not strong enough.\u2019 The week after, it might be, \u2018Oh, but you lost the creaminess, and virility.\u2019 So that week is about keeping the strength, but addressing the virility, boldness, and rawness etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the closer you are to the end of the project, it\u2019s about fine tuning. It\u2019s like a watch. You change the name, you change the wording, you put the comma somewhere else. It\u2019s about high precision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very, very last step is usually almost untouchable,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou feel it, but you can\u2019t smell it. It\u2019s about the feeling\u2026 At some point, the perfume is set up, and you start to forget the concept because it becomes an emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the most challenging part of Kurkdjian\u2019s role is ensuring a scent lasts on the skin for many hours. According to the nose, you could have every other part of the perfume puzzle perfect \u2013 and then the scent doesn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most difficult challenge, even now, is to get the long-lastingness. That\u2019s horrible,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cThere is no machine, or artificial intelligence that can tell you what to do\u2026 That question about long-lastingness, projection and sillage, to me, is the worst thing ever because if you don\u2019t get that, it cannot be a success. For sure you fail. For sure, for sure, for sure. I could bet on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, I could cry in the morning when I wake up because I have to fix it and I don\u2019t know how to fix it. It\u2019s very upsetting,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt leads you to frustration because you have the idea, the picture of the story, everything should be fine\u2013but for that damn long-lastingness. It\u2019s very tricky to fix it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/F607-JADORE-RENO-LOR-23-P14F-LOCOor-Fleurs.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
An Evening In Provence
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nThis same day, Kurkdjian invites GRAZIA to Ch\u00e2teau de La Colle Noire, the home Christian Dior bought in 1951 and stayed until his untimely passing six years later. He was 52. Here, in Provence \u2013 just north of Montauroux in Grasse \u2013 the sprawling ch\u00e2teau overlooks hectares of land originally cultivated for fragrant flowers and fruit harvests.<\/p>\n
Christian Dior Parfums bought the estate in 2013, about the same time the Maison was opening a new perfume laboratory in Grasse. Designers spent three years restoring the garden to how Mr Dior envisaged. They used photographs to replicate what he would have wanted: lily of the valley and tulips; almond, cherry, apricot and olive trees. There\u2019s even a field of 1,000 rose bushes and a 40-metre pond.<\/p>\n
Kurkdjian, well-suited and working the influential crowd, charmingly asks guests about their own lives; where they are from, what they do for work, their travel plans, their families. Every so often, however, his gaze shifts to the evening light pattering the paddocks in the distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the process that is very specific to Dior is that the inspiration can come from the garden,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to understand what Mr Dior was thinking when he was working. The thing that I smelt in the fields during a harvest season that I will use for a [future] perfume, is truly transpired from that moment in that garden. Is that something I could have done from my own house? Never. Never ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking To The Future
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nThe perfumer has some interesting views on the future of wearable sensory technology, and electric transfer of scents \u2013 realities he believes are not too far away from fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy new thing is about having a chip in your head. This is my obsession,\u201d he says. \u201cHow would it work? Basically, your nose is just a transmitter. You don\u2019t have to smell through your nose. The smell has to go through your nose, but you smell in your head. Take, for example, your eyes. When you look at something using vision, the eyes are just the transmitters, and then your brain helps you to decode what the signal is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that we could have a chip [in our brains] and download data,\u201d he reinforces. \u201cBasically, you could buy the smell of L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore and instead of smelling it through your nose, you will have a signal [in your brain].<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to go there. Very fast, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Kurkdjian\u2019s theory is entirely plausible \u2013 could we be downloading L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore in our brains in years to come? \u2013 it\u2019s almost unfathomable to think anything could replace the ritual of smelling a fresh bouquet of flowers. In a suite in Cannes, in Mr Dior\u2019s garden in Provence, or otherwise.<\/p>\n
At least for those in between moments, the gold is now bottled. Eureka, indeed.<\/p>\n
Dior\u2019s L\u2019Or de J’adore is available TO SHOP now.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n<\/span><\/h3>\n
Kurkdjian and his team at Dior worked hard on deconstructing J\u2019adore\u2019s formula, playing with scent proportions, and pronouncing only its \u201cnecessary\u201d ingredients. The perfumer says he had 125 modifications and believes if there wasn\u2019t a deadline to get it all completed, he would simply \u201ckeep going on, and on, and on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know [you\u2019ve reached the final composition] when the guy who is the timekeeper tells you it\u2019s time to give the final formula to the factory,\u201d he shares, jovially.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a goal each week to achieve,\u201d he continues. \u201cOne week I would say, \u2018This week it\u2019s not strong enough.\u2019 The week after, it might be, \u2018Oh, but you lost the creaminess, and virility.\u2019 So that week is about keeping the strength, but addressing the virility, boldness, and rawness etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the closer you are to the end of the project, it\u2019s about fine tuning. It\u2019s like a watch. You change the name, you change the wording, you put the comma somewhere else. It\u2019s about high precision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very, very last step is usually almost untouchable,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou feel it, but you can\u2019t smell it. It\u2019s about the feeling\u2026 At some point, the perfume is set up, and you start to forget the concept because it becomes an emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the most challenging part of Kurkdjian\u2019s role is ensuring a scent lasts on the skin for many hours. According to the nose, you could have every other part of the perfume puzzle perfect \u2013 and then the scent doesn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most difficult challenge, even now, is to get the long-lastingness. That\u2019s horrible,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cThere is no machine, or artificial intelligence that can tell you what to do\u2026 That question about long-lastingness, projection and sillage, to me, is the worst thing ever because if you don\u2019t get that, it cannot be a success. For sure you fail. For sure, for sure, for sure. I could bet on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, I could cry in the morning when I wake up because I have to fix it and I don\u2019t know how to fix it. It\u2019s very upsetting,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt leads you to frustration because you have the idea, the picture of the story, everything should be fine\u2013but for that damn long-lastingness. It\u2019s very tricky to fix it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Evening In Provence
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nThis same day, Kurkdjian invites GRAZIA to Ch\u00e2teau de La Colle Noire, the home Christian Dior bought in 1951 and stayed until his untimely passing six years later. He was 52. Here, in Provence \u2013 just north of Montauroux in Grasse \u2013 the sprawling ch\u00e2teau overlooks hectares of land originally cultivated for fragrant flowers and fruit harvests.<\/p>\n
Christian Dior Parfums bought the estate in 2013, about the same time the Maison was opening a new perfume laboratory in Grasse. Designers spent three years restoring the garden to how Mr Dior envisaged. They used photographs to replicate what he would have wanted: lily of the valley and tulips; almond, cherry, apricot and olive trees. There\u2019s even a field of 1,000 rose bushes and a 40-metre pond.<\/p>\n
Kurkdjian, well-suited and working the influential crowd, charmingly asks guests about their own lives; where they are from, what they do for work, their travel plans, their families. Every so often, however, his gaze shifts to the evening light pattering the paddocks in the distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the process that is very specific to Dior is that the inspiration can come from the garden,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to understand what Mr Dior was thinking when he was working. The thing that I smelt in the fields during a harvest season that I will use for a [future] perfume, is truly transpired from that moment in that garden. Is that something I could have done from my own house? Never. Never ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking To The Future
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nThe perfumer has some interesting views on the future of wearable sensory technology, and electric transfer of scents \u2013 realities he believes are not too far away from fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy new thing is about having a chip in your head. This is my obsession,\u201d he says. \u201cHow would it work? Basically, your nose is just a transmitter. You don\u2019t have to smell through your nose. The smell has to go through your nose, but you smell in your head. Take, for example, your eyes. When you look at something using vision, the eyes are just the transmitters, and then your brain helps you to decode what the signal is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that we could have a chip [in our brains] and download data,\u201d he reinforces. \u201cBasically, you could buy the smell of L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore and instead of smelling it through your nose, you will have a signal [in your brain].<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to go there. Very fast, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Kurkdjian\u2019s theory is entirely plausible \u2013 could we be downloading L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore in our brains in years to come? \u2013 it\u2019s almost unfathomable to think anything could replace the ritual of smelling a fresh bouquet of flowers. In a suite in Cannes, in Mr Dior\u2019s garden in Provence, or otherwise.<\/p>\n
At least for those in between moments, the gold is now bottled. Eureka, indeed.<\/p>\n
Dior\u2019s L\u2019Or de J’adore is available TO SHOP now.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n
The perfumer has some interesting views on the future of wearable sensory technology, and electric transfer of scents \u2013 realities he believes are not too far away from fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy new thing is about having a chip in your head. This is my obsession,\u201d he says. \u201cHow would it work? Basically, your nose is just a transmitter. You don\u2019t have to smell through your nose. The smell has to go through your nose, but you smell in your head. Take, for example, your eyes. When you look at something using vision, the eyes are just the transmitters, and then your brain helps you to decode what the signal is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that we could have a chip [in our brains] and download data,\u201d he reinforces. \u201cBasically, you could buy the smell of L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore and instead of smelling it through your nose, you will have a signal [in your brain].<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to go there. Very fast, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Kurkdjian\u2019s theory is entirely plausible \u2013 could we be downloading L\u2019Or de J\u2019adore in our brains in years to come? \u2013 it\u2019s almost unfathomable to think anything could replace the ritual of smelling a fresh bouquet of flowers. In a suite in Cannes, in Mr Dior\u2019s garden in Provence, or otherwise.<\/p>\n
At least for those in between moments, the gold is now bottled. Eureka, indeed.<\/p>\n
Dior\u2019s L\u2019Or de J’adore is available TO SHOP now.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n