Christian Dior, Dolce Vita, 7.5 ml. or 0.25 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, Flacon de Sac, 1994, 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.’

Created by perfumers Pierre Bourdon and Maurice Roger in 1994, the name Dolce Vita means "sweet life" in Italian and was inspired by the classic Fellini film and the carefree joy of driving along the Italian Riviera. It is known as "happiness in a bottle," blending a fizzy, mouthwatering sweetness with warm spices and dry wood.

Top Notes are Peach, Crdamom, Lily, Grapefruit, Bergamot, and Rose
Heart Notes are Cinnamon, Apricot, Brazilian Rosewood, Lily, Heliotrope, and Magnolia
Base Notes are Vanilla, Sandalwood, Cedar, and Coconut

This is a sweet oriental fragrance with a spicy woody base. This perfume of joy and happiness reminds us of hot and sunny summer days-the scent of easy living.

Offered here is a lovely flacon of the Dolce Vita Parfum Extrait. The gold bottle can be opened up to receive a new refill. It really smells lovely .. surprisingly beautiful for a more modern parfum ..

The Parfum Extrait is very very rare now, and almost impossible to find. I also have a couple of refills available for this gorgeous flacon de sac .. It comes with its lovely little golden yellow bag ..