“It’s bolder, it’s in-your-face,” says Francis Kurkdjian, of his formula for Miss Dior Essence, the just-launched take on Miss Dior, Christian Dior Parfum’s classic fragrance for young women.
We are sitting in a dramatically vaulted room at Domain de Naysses, the former home of Catherine Dior, the younger sister of the famed French designer. Kurkdjian, Dior’s Perfume Creation Director and the nose behind the perfume, is relaying his process for putting a modern stamp on a seminal scent. Where better to tap into the spirit of Miss Dior than in the historical home of the woman who, as legend has it, served as the tribute for the creation of the original in 1947, amidst the fields of flowers that she tended to. “The roses have been grown by Catherine herself,” he says. “She passed away in 2008, so it’s not so long ago.”
Who Was Catherine Dior?
The Domain, in the provincial village of Callais (a stone’s throw from fragrance capital Grasse) is where Catherine returned to convalesce at the end of World War II. She’d just been released from a prison camp after a courageous turn as a freedom fighter during the war, her deep convictions leading her to fight for what she believed in. As Christian’s kid sister (12 years his junior), she lived quite near to his stately home in neighboring Montauroux. The two were so close, the phone at his chateau, La Colle Noire, only connected to two numbers: his atelier in Paris and Catherine’s home.
The History of the Scent
Christian Dior originally commissioned a chypre scent for Miss Dior — a scent blending floral and woody notes. “It was meant for the young ones,” says Kurkdjian. “A tribute to youth and rejuvenation.” The formula was updated in 2021 into a sweeter floral and then reinterpreted by Kurkdjian in 2024. “We had lost a bit of the identity,” he admits. The creation of Miss Dior Essence “closes the loop,” says the master. The moniker is a play on words — the fragrance is both concentrated and also the essence of the idea of who the modern Miss Dior woman is. It taps into the liberated, take-charge spirit of a new generation — and ties back to the one and only Catherine and everything she stood for.
Deconstructing Miss Dior Essence
To bring this vibe to life, Kurkdjian played with the foundational chypre building blocks with jasmine and smoky oakmoss. But he layered jammy, fruity notes on top, giving the fragrance “a kind of mouth-watering juiciness, almost like a lipgloss,” he says. For the fruits, he chose blackberry and elderflower. “The elderflower is very chic and sophisticated. It’s kind of feminine. Not too girly, but still relevant,” he explains. Relevant, indeed. Case in point: the cocktail of the moment is arguably the elderflower liquor-infused Hugo Spritz.
Even the bottle reflects this heightened, vivid expression of Miss Dior. An edgy black bow adorns the herringbone-patterned glass flacon, and the juice of the perfume is an intense pink bordering on fuchsia. Brand face Natalie Portman fronts the Miss Dior Essence campaign, clad in a chic yet unconventional dress. During a tour of Paris, the actress reveals that the frock makes her feel as if she could go “from a ball into battle” — a sartorial move Catherine Dior could get behind, no doubt.
