Christian Dior, Miss Dior, Classic Green Chypre, 30 ml. or 1 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1947, 1970, 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.

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 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.’

And Miss Dior became one of the great fragrance icons of the 20th Century. Allegedly, as Dior was preparing for the launch of his first perfume, the name for the fragrance had yet to be invented. Then his sister, Catherine Dior, walked into the salon of 30 Avenue Montaigne. Dior’s muse, Mitzah Bricard, announced ‘Here’s Miss Dior!’ On the day of the show, the salon was sprayed with this bewitching perfume, and clients and journalists left with its scent on their clothes and their skin. Eau Fraîche also appeared during the Dior years .. a summery splash by perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, uplifting with mandarin and lemon, with oak moss and vanilla in its base.

“For a perfume to have lasting hold, it needs to first hold the heart of its creator.” Miss Dior is the fragrance Christian Dior cherished, the one he nurtured for a long time before it was revealed. The perfume is one of boldness, renewal and freedom. Miss Dior is a journey and a face .. a fervid heart throbbing.

Launched in 1947, Miss Dior is an entirely feminine perfume. The fragrance was created by perfumers Paul Vacher, Serge Heftler Louiche and Jean Carles. Christian Dior asked them for a fragrance "that smells of love".

Top Notes are Aldehydes, Gardenia, Galbanum, Clary Sage, and Bergamot
Heart notes are Carnation, Iris, Orris Root, Jasmine, Neroli, Lily of the Valley, Rose, and Narcissus
Base Notes are Labdanum, Leather, Sandalwood, Amber, Patchouli, Oak Moss, and Vetiver

"The "Miss" suggests a ingenue quality that this composed and refined perfume belies, in its complexity of notes. And finally, it is way sexier than its later outer presentation would suggest. Perhaps, having been constructed for the late '40s woman, it represents her sexuality under wraps. The mix of notes in Miss Dior truly makes the metaphor of perfume as a musical composition work: it is an orchestrated blend that hits you like a full-on symphony." Yesterday's Perfume

"There's a liquid crystalline citrus accord with the tang removed, and a spicy pepper clove and coriander overtone, with a base of resins balms, vetiver moss and patchouli. As it unfolds the spicy leather softens to reveal a lovely rose-jasmin and lily heart, surrounded by iris, neroli, lavender, tuberose and a green accord." Basenotes Review, Wild Gardener

"A sophisticated and luxurious scent that evokes images of the epitome of feminine elegance and style, the whisper of fine silk in motion,opulence of cashmere and magnificent furs. It is classified as a luxurious,gentle floral fragrance that immediately diffuses from the skin because of its aldehyde nature and top aldehyde notes. An expertly orchestrated bouquet forms the heart, including carnation, lily, jasmine and neroli and a warm mossy base of woods with labdanum creates a harmonized blend that is both fresh and sensual and also utterly feminine." Basenotes Review, Aquila

Offered here is a lovely pristine and rather rare two ounce bottle of this fabulous classic fragrance in perfect condition, still sealed with string and baudrouche, and with its original presentation box. I had to remove the cellophane to take photographs. Very rare to find in this condition any more, a real treasure!

Miss Dior lovers!!