She is the moment. With her elegant stature, hyper-feminine, confident curves and golden honey hue, she’s garnered a legion of mega-fans. A symbol of pop culture, she’s lived several incarnations, ever evolving her story for over 20 years. No, I’m not referring to multi-hyphenate Rihanna, whose very essence inspired the new J’adore Intense. I’m talking about… the legendary bottle.
In the world of perfumery, judging a book by its cover is de rigueur. The flacon of a fragrance is the gateway drug, the love-at-first-sight turn-on and the tangible identity of the scent. Simply put, top sellers have memorable vessels. Take, for instance, the slightly subversive stiletto of Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl. Or Jean Paul Gauthier Le Male’s buff torso. Since its inception, Dior’s J’adore practically doubles as an object d’art, a totem rich in brand codes.
Instantly recognizable and synonymous with the famed French fashion house, the J’adore amphora follows the curves of the figure eight silhouette designed by Christian Dior in 1947 to establish his nipped-in New Look. But there’s much more to the story of how the bottle came to be than a single reference.
When production on J’adore started in 1996, the house looked to an unexpected artisan to envision and create the packaging for the new white floral fragrance. Enter wunderkind jewelry designer Hervé Van der Straeton, whose first collection was so well received that he started his own company at age 19. The artist worked in finely gilded, hand-hammered brass that caught the eye of fashion’s elite. Van der Straeton was tapped to create accessories for runway shows for “major couturiers,” he recalls in an exclusive interview.
The artist was briefed by Madame Marie-Christine de Sayn Wittgenstein, the creative director at Dior Perfumes at the time, who he remembers as “the embodiment of Parisian chic, with natural style and a voice like velvet,” and set to work dreaming up a form for the as-yet-unnamed scent. Van der Straeton presented hundreds of watercolor sketches that were then developed into models. “I had suggested tall bottles, in harmony with John Galliano’s astonishing, elegant creations, which in turn evoked Monsier Dior’s aesthetic,” he says. The British designer had just taken the reins at the house. At first, Van der Staeton’s drawings with delicate necks that were tough to manufacture were balked at, but eventually a compromise was struck. The result: “a highly streamlined design that was both futuristic and yet rooted in history.”
A gilded, gadrooned cap topped off the elegant design. “The inspiration came from the emblematic neck rings worn by the so-called “giraffe women” of the Padaung tribe of Myanmar, which Galliano had reimagined for one of his shows,” Van der Straeton reveals. Later, the artist crafted a Maasai necklace at the request of Galliano, which has become an iconic piece of the Maison.
The bottle has morphed through the years with each iteration of the scent. With the 1999 launch, Van der Straeton’s design boasted a crystal bottle with matte gold neck rings. The adornments evolved to be more fluid in the 2010s, with the flacon becoming a bit more sensual and rounded. 2023 marked the incarnation of L’Or de J’adore, Francis Kurkdjian’s take on the iconic scent, with a warm, melted-by-the-sun voluptuousness to the aroma and a molten gold cap to match. For the just-dropped J’adore Intense, the update has major implications beyond the cosmetic. The weight of the glass has been reduced by 53%, making it ultra light and extraordinarily environmentally conscious. Following suit, the gilding on the neck is lightly etched, topped with a new golden bead.
But while the vessel of J’adore Intense may be decidedly more subtle, the juice is its boldest incarnation yet. “I wanted the fragrance to be more voluptuous, confident, playful and sensual,” says Kurkdjian, who had the face of the brand, and her unapologetic bodaciousness, in mind.”Rihanna is naturally inspiring and intense,” he exclaims. To push J’adore’s floral bouquet of rose, jasmine and ylang ylang to “unprecedented fruity and sensory extremes,” he blended the warm, syrupy fruity facets of the flowers in a new way to bring out “a sort of gourmand glow.” The result: an unabashedly sultry, yet sophisticated spritz. A power-packed scent with not-to-be-underestimated curves. “It is a J’adore for a new era, Kurkdjian says, “that risks making a change.” A new era, indeed.
