FLAIR DE FRANCIS
Written by: Ali Y. Khadra & Khansaa Houlbi
Sorbet sits down with Francis Kurkdjian as he spills all the fruity, woody, floral-y, and ambre-y tea on Dior's latest fragrant feast: Les Esprits de Parfum
In the world of luxury fragrance, where every spritz is a story and each note a memory, there exists a name so revered it exudes the essence of legend: Francis Kurkdjian. This isn’t just any perfumer – Kurkdjian is the magician of molecules, who could probably distill a fleeting sunset or the laughter of a Parisian café into a bottle. His creations are never just perfumes, they are olfactory symphonies that linger in your spirit long after they’ve left your skin. And in his latest fragrant escapade, Kurkdjian takes on the ginormous task of revisiting five of Dior’s most iconic scents, infusing them with a minimalistic touch so daring, so refined, it’s like watching a chef prepare a five-course meal with the most minimal and pure ingredients.
Les Esprits de Parfum is a collection that isn’t just a reworking but an aromatic revelation. Kurkdjian, with all the finesse of a poet, takes us on a journey through the familiar yet transforms it into something audaciously new. Gris Dior, with its intensified chypre accord, now resonates like the darkest of grayest thunders – powerful and unforgettable. Ambre Nuit now whispers the darkest secrets, the kind that are hushed at the spice souks and passed across the desert dunes during a starry night. Lucky, once emitting the essence of innocence with its lily of the valley, finds a radical tone, now giving good-girl-gone- bad, but in a delicious style. Oud Ispahan transports you through a fantastical journey around the Orient, and exudes the same tales as One Thousand and One Nights, rich with mystique and allure. Then there’s Rouge Trafalgar, a fiery reinterpretation of red so bold it doesn’t just turn heads, it starts riots.
These esprits, encased in sleek, new polished bottles, are more than just scents, but pure artistic declarations, des chef-d’oeuvres, if you will, that hold within them the essence of Dior’s couture spirit. Each is concocted with the secret diary that reveals what makes Dior, Dior, yet reimagined through Kurkdjian’s visionary lens. It’s not just about what you smell, but the different world they’re taking you to, whether it’s the spicy markets of Ambre Nuit or the rebellious flash of Rouge Trafalgar.
We sit down with Francis Kurkdjian to explore the alchemy behind these breathtaking creations, to understand the meticulous craft that has elevated them from perfumes to timeless spirits.
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ALI Y. KHADRA: What is striking about this collection is your approach in transcribing a story – and in this case essentially the history of la Maison Dior – into an olfactory sensation. With an intricate conceptualisation, where do you start?
FRANCIS KURKDJIAN: As a kid in love with perfume, I was so in love with the name Esprit de Parfum that I thought, when I would have my own brand I wanted to call some of my perfumes Esprit de Parfum. I learned that the name was still patented by Dior so I couldn’t use it. When I joined Dior, one of my desires was to re-birth Esprit de Parfum. I love the name because it’s very Dior to me. The idea of ‘the spirit of perfume’ already gives an idea of what it will smell like.
And when I started selecting fragrances to work on, I thought of the meaning behind the saying of “La Collection Privée is Christian Dior couturier parfumeur,” because they’re
not just words put together, there is a true meaning to it. We are a brand of couturiers- parfumeurs because there was a true desire by Christian Dior himself to be involved in the creation of the perfumes – he had his office at the factory. Together with his interior designer, they designed the perfume displays. He was also the one who added the bow on Miss Dior. So when he says “I am as much of a couturier, as a parfumeur”, there is a true desire of being involved. Esprits de Parfum, to me, resonates as the spirit of Christian Dior working on the perfume and to me the word Esprit is a truly Dior word and that had to be in the narrative.
I went through the Collection Privée and the existing scents and I curated the fragrances that were resonating with me. I divided it into two parts. There was one based on what I could, in a way, make the “Couture Collection”– so Gris Dior, Lucky, and Rouge Trafalgar – and the second one was inspired by the Middle East. At the time, Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, designed the dress for the future queen of Jordan, and it was a big wedding. Also, part of my roots are from the Middle East, so I am kind of connected to two fragrances. One is Oud Ispahan, because part of my family comes from Iran, and Ispahan is related to the Damask rose. The other is Ambre Nuit, and I love the name. There is something that resonates quite well and I decided to curate my work based on that storytelling.
AYK: What is the difference between La Collection Privée and Les Esprits de Parfum?
FK: It is more intense and straightforward. For example, when I started working to create what would be the esprit (spirit) of Lucky, I totally reshaped the formula. I got rid of all the flowers besides the lily of the valley, I added in the back a kind of black wood accord, to highlight the white of the lily of the valley, and to give the white even more depth and light.
Rouge Trafalgar is electric with a hint of fruity notes. I thought to go for it and make it different, and make Rouge Trafalgar the wakeup call within the collection. Very colorful, very bright, very fruity. Also Mr. Dior was a gourmand. Rouge Trafalgar, had to be a bit unexpected, because we don’t usually expect a very elegant French perfume collection to have a straightforward fruity note.
Ambre Nuit, because of its name, should smell very dark. The Eau de Parfum is very addictive and yummy in a very sensual and sexy way. To me, it was not dark enough, and I thought the Esprit de Parfum to be the night without a moon. In the formula, I was getting rid of what could bring that idea of whiteness and go back to the core of the Ambre accord. I kept almost everything, even the spiciness. I just defined it.
Gris Dior has a kind of mystery. That gray color is a blend of white and black, and was a favorite of Christian Dior’s because it was the color of Granville (the seaside town where Dior spent his childhood). For Mr Dior, gray is the color that helps other colors exist. So I put my own twist on Gris Dior, about that darker grey because the idea of an Esprit de Parfum is to capture the spirit of the quintessence of a perfume form. So it means to be more concentrated and more intense.
Oud Ispahan talks about the relationship between the house of Dior and the Middle East. The rose oud accord is the Middle Eastern version of rose patchouli. We switched the patchouli, which is a wood, with adding the animalistic facet of the oud but technically as a perfumer, they play the same role, to just switch the material from one to the other, but it occupies the same space.
They are different in smell, but I think the spirit, to me, at least remains the same. The translation of the spirit and the story is unique. That was the idea, because the existing five will still remain the way they are.
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AYK: How different is it to create a scent for another Maison, in this case Dior, rather than creating for your Maison?
FK: My palette at Dior is different from my palette at Maison Francis Kurkdjian. It’s about the interpretation of stories and how I translate them. In my House, I started from scratch. I decided because it’s me, I have the liberty of expression. At Dior, I have a similar liberty, but there are codes that are part of the House of Dior and you must respect them. I have a good palette, but I had to change a few things because they were not for the House of Dior, at the level of what I want to say. It’s Dior, so you have some codes you have to respect, such as flowers. Superstition is also one of the codes. I am immersing myself in the House of Dior, and this is how I interpret it.
AYK: How have you implemented the idea of minimalism in Les Esprits de Parfum?
FK: The whole purpose of Les Esprits de Parfum, based on the existing portfolio, is to bring out the intensity and my way of doing so is to cut and simplify. Having a long formula, complicates the process, and if something goes wrong you can end up with so many possibilities of how it went wrong. Sometimes, the style of your perfume needs to have multiple layers, which will result in a long formula. So even if the formula is long, you try to make it the shortest possible each time, which makes it straightforward. Through simplifying, everything becomes sharp and more intense.
AYK: What is an aspect of Dior’s ethos that you wanted to express and was central to developing Les Esprits de Parfums?
FK: Radicality. I like radicality, and life is radical in a way. And there is a statement at Dior. Each collection was a statement during the time of Christian Dior. Even now, with Maria Grazia, at the very beginning, when she came up with “We Should all be Feminists” people were shocked. To be at Dior, we have to make a statement as a brand. And in terms of les Esprits de Parfums, it means more concentrated and more intense perfumes.
AYK: When you’re creating a scent, at what point do you get that light bulb moment and you feel like you’re done?
FK: When marketing knocks! Hahahaha
AYK: Hahaha.
FK: Most of the time, we knock at the planning team’s office, to try to buy extra time and negotiate. First of all, we have to work almost two years in advance. Not because it takes so much time to make a perfume, but because you have so many legal and regulatory aspects to take care of. A good amount of time to work on the perfume is between six to eight months. I need eight months to work. You have some stages where you have to wait and you have to let the perfume just sit by itself. Three weeks for maturation, three weeks for maceration. So you have six weeks where you just wait and nothing happens. This is a luxury time and luxury is also in these details that you don’t see at all. When you blend such quantitative ingredients at a high level of price, quality and the added value in the formula, you have to give them time to shine and to sit with one-another. Also, when you create a new composition, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Sometimes I think of it going one way based on my experience, but it ends up going the opposite direction, because it’s new material, and you need time to readjust.
AYK: There are some perfume lovers who tend to layer different perfumes – what is your take on that? Do you think it should be done with Les Esprits de Parfum?
FK: From my point of view as a perfumer, no, it’s nonsense. Imagine you go to a restaurant, and you ask to create your own thing. You take a mille-feuille and un éclair au chocolat and you start making your own pastry.
As a client you can do whatever you want because you pay for it. Fashion is the same, they present what they think you should do. Then you have real life, and you mix and match.
AYK: It’s always a pleasure to have you here at Sorbet. Thank you for your time, Francis.
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