Christian Dior, Diorling, 112 ml. or 3.7 oz Flacon, Eau de Cologne, 1963, Paris, France ..

"A woman’s perfume tells me more about her than her handwriting.’ So said Christian Dior, who was born in 1905, and who was one of the greatest-ever couturiers, but yet a man whose name is also synonymous, all over the world, with the art of perfume." The Perfume Society.

As design careers go, Christian Dior‘s didn’t start well. His parents, who lived in a grand villa on the Normandy coast, refused to let him attend a school of fine arts, telling him that it wouldn’t help him find a real job. He kept his parents quiet, initially, by enrolling for Paris’s Institute of Political Sciences, but little did his parents realise that this was also a door to Paris’s exotic night-life.

Dior drifted happily into the company of artists and writers who later went on to become among the greatest of their time, painter Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau, poet Max Jacob and actor Marcel Herrand all became friends. And another arty friend asked Christian Dior, who really longed to be an artist himself, if he’d be interested in becoming a partner in his new gallery. With funding from Dior’s father, it went on to showcase works by Paul Klee, Otto Dix, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miro and Raoul Dufy, among many others, But sadly, the Wall Street crash of 1929 made for few buyers, and badly dented the Dior family fortunes, and this adventure ended when tuberculosis forced Christian Dior to leave Paris, in 1934.

On his return, post-recovery, an impoverished Dior looked for work. A friend suggested he take up fashion illustration; he dedicated himself to the task, studying the great designers such as Molyneux, Schiaparelli, and Lanvin, and his dress designs were sought out by couturier Robert Piguet. The paper Le Figaro gave Dior‘s vibrant sketches a weekly page, and his hat designs did well, too.

During the Second World War, Dior worked as a designer beneath couturier Lucien Lelong. On 12th February 1947, Christian Dior started his own business, and turned the austere post-wartime world on its head, creating the most headline-grabbing collection ever known. Overnight, Christian Dior‘s ‘New Look’, with its full, swirling skirts, wasp-waisted jackets and bold use of colour, became, as Vogue puts it, ‘catnip to a luxury-starved populace eager to return to the rituals of grooming and dressing up’.

But women didn’t just want to look good. They wanted to smell beautiful, too. Soon after the success of his ground-breaking New Look, Dior recalled, ‘Miss Dior was born. It was born of those Provençal evenings filled with fireflies when green jasmine serves as a counterpoint to the melody of the night and the earth.’

Launched in 1963, Diorling is a chypre fragrance for women, created by Paul Vacher.

"Diorling is a leather chypre with its leather front-loaded. On first spritz of the vintage Diorling, I smell strong, elegant leather, like unwrapping the tissue around a pair of new stilettos with an orange flower blossom, stem attached, stuffed in each toe. After an hour or so, a glorious white floral heart joins the leather, quieter now, and Diorling becomes much more approachable. Half a day later, Diorling fades to a close hum of oakmoss, patchouli, and .. still .. a little leather. I adore it." Now Smell This

If Diorama is synonymous to a classical goddess, then Diorling is fit for a dark Rennaisance angel. This supremely elegant "leather chypre" that saw the light of the day in 1963 is one of the rare beauties that have such smooth contours, so velvety a sheen as to render the leather note a tender caress on a very expensive handbag of an austere design resting atop a soft feminine lap while waiting for a rendez-vous a deux; a handsome beau bringing flowers hidden behind his back." Perfume Shrine

"Bright florals, and a touch of green, with a mossy leather base. Narcotic florals and leather saddle effect. Leather is Bandit like, then powdery and mossy. Dry down is fruity rich." Barbara Herman. Basenotes Review. Jack Twist

Top notes are Hyacinth and Bergamot
Heart notes are Iris, Jasmine, Rose, and Lily of the Valley
Base notes are Vetiver, Patchouli, Oak Moss, and Leather

Offered here is a brand new unopened and unused 3.7 ounce bottle of the beautiful Diorling Eau de Cologne. Very little evaporation .. Beautiful and so very rare now .. No box.