Miss Dior La Vie en Rose: new campaign for Dior's best-selling fragrance

It doesn't matter that Dior's Miss Dior perfume is a travesty on a thousand levels (the fragrance started out being called Miss Dior Cherie, it changed its formula into being unrecognizable, it took the name of the original 1947 Miss Dior perfume confusing consumers etc. etc; click on Miss Dior vs Miss Dior Cherie differences article to find out the whole truth). A new campaign is a new campaign nevertheless (starring Natalie Portman again, the premise for the new, more "serious" love angle they're pitching) and it will have tongues wagging, no doubt. Especially since Sofia Coppola is directing (i.e. the woman who was responsible for the delightful and oh-so-fun original Miss Dior Cherie campaign with a flirty Marina Linchuk set to Bardot's "Moi, je joue" tune years ago).

Here are the teasers, the whole commercial will air on February 24th.
I assume the line "Christian Dior said" refers to the Dior fragrances brand and not the actual designer...(who had been dead long before Miss Dior (Cherie) was even a spermatic thought at anyone's mind). Ah well, chalk it up into harmless fluff and enjoy the visuals.

"When he takes me in his hands...



...and whispers love to me...



...everything's lovely. It's him for me and me for him...



...all our lives, and it's so real what I feel, that's why."



The teasers are code-named "the fountain" (la fontaine), "the car ride" (la voiture), "the kiss" (le baiser) and "the garden" (le jardin).

Chronology, Comparison & Photos of Miss Dior (Cherie) Various Editions & Reformulations: How to Spot the One You Like

It was a few months ago I was venting on the reformulation and name change of a very popular Dior perfume, the coquette Miss Dior Chérie which became...Miss Dior, thus changing the course of history forever for the young generations. The issue is both puzzling and enraging enough and you can (re)read my previous article if you like, but I realized that what many people are asking for is how to differentiate between the various editions and how to spot the older Miss Dior Chérie from the reformulated one.
So here's a short guide with photos to help you pick the right one; the one you meant to buy.

First of all, according to the official claims the new version of Miss Dior (Cherie in parenthesis, because that's what it is a version of) (2011) is "subtler and more refined" than the original from 2005 created by perfumer Christine Nagel. If we're to do a Miss Dior Chérie 2005 vs. 2011 edition comparison, the new edition is credited to perfumer Francois Demachy and starts on a different premise: 'Dior's girl is grown up and is now a woman who loves' (instead of one who flirts, we're led to believe), fronted in the advertisements by Natalie Portman, but the truth is much of the character that made Miss Dior Chérie so much a love-it-or-hate-it fragrance is lost, the tart strawberry jam note and the caramelic pop-corn is watered down and all we're left with is a generic sweet top, a white floral note and sanitised patchouli. But that's just my own opinion; don't mind me too much, I always thought the old was rather unpalatable, though it possessed conviction & character. But what is now admitted officially, was a fact even before 2011! A while ago the Dior fragrance was already reformulated, even though it circulated under the full name (see below for photos and captions).

Miss Dior Chérie EDP (Christine Nagel 2005) will be available on the market while stocks las (the last reformulation before the 2011 one will be as well), and the new edition Miss Dior (Chérie) EDP (Francois Demachy 2011) will replace it completely.
The reason of course being that Miss Dior Chérie outsells the original Miss Dior by a wide margin...

click to enlarge

The rather confusing Miss Dior (Chérie) line comprises so far:
Miss Dior Chérie Eau de Parfum 2005 (Christine Nagel original)
Miss Dior Chérie Eau de Toilette 2007 (this version eventually obtained the white label instead of the silver writing on the bottle, like the later reformulated EDP)
Miss Dior Chérie Eau de Printemps 2008 (limited edition),
Miss Dior Chérie Blooming Bouquet 2008 (exclusive for the Asian market)
Miss Dior Chérie L'Eau 2009 (a completely different fragrance, a "flanker")
Miss Dior (Chérie) Eau de Parfum 2011 (Demachy reformulation)
Miss Dior Eau Fraiche Eau de Toilette (new flanker for spring 2012)
Miss Dior (Chérie) Le Parfum (August 2012)

Miss Dior Chéri EDP 2005

Miss Dior Cherie EDP reformulated 2008

Miss Dior Cherie~ L.to R: Eau, EDP, EDT 2008 presentation

Miss Dior (Cherie) reformulated 2011 "couture" edition

The confusion happens with the Eau de Parfum (EDP) mainly as this is the sought-after version. The older original 2005 bottles had a silver writing on the bottle, while the white label was introduced sometime in 2008 (as attested by the Maryna Linchuck commercials). Please be warned that a perceptable reformulation happened in 2010 to both EDP and EDT, when the Eau de Toilette version was remade in 2010.

Miss Dior Originale EDT 2011

The classic 1947 Miss Dior now circulates in Eau de Toilette (and extrait de parfum) as Miss Dior Originale. The extrait de parfum of the Cherie declination (now simply presented as Miss Dior as well) is thankfully distinguishable by the bottle design which is close to that of the pinkish Cherie juice and bears a ribbon bow. The body lotion comes in both the Cherie and the original 1947 scent, the latter distinguishable by the moniker "Diortendre" below the Miss Dior name.

Miss Dior Eau Fraiche edt 2012

Imagine the confusion when spring 2012 will see the introduction of Miss Dior Eau Fraiche by Dior, blending not only one classic fragrance in the mix but two! (Dior Eau Fraiche is an Edmond Roudnitska perfume composition from the 1950s).

Adding that August 2012 sees the introduction of Miss Dior ((Chérie) Le Parfum, an extrait version of the reformulated Demachy juice, fronted by Natalie Portman in the ads.
As you can see in the pic below the bottle is identical to the 2008 reformulated EDP but with Le Parfum written under the "Miss Dior" tag.

There's a circle in hell reserved for Parfums Dior for confusing us so!
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Related reading on Perfume Shrine: the Christian Dior fragrance reviews

You can also check PerfumeShrine's previous entries on the different flankers/perfume editions of Dior Poisons, the many flankers/limited editions of Dior best-seller J'Adore, the super confusing group of fragrance editions by Rodriguez Narciso For Her with their differences highlighted, the Etro Via Verri original and reformulated editions, the Shiseido Zen perfume editions, the several fragrance editions of Flower by Kenzo compared to one another (with pics) and Hermes Merveilles perfume range different editions.

some photos via sassisamblog.com

Natalie Portman in Miss Dior Cherie 2011 Commercial

The sighs of Jane Birkin under Serge Gainsbourg's classic (and racy) "Je t'Aime...moi non plus" song are accompanying a new sexy siren of the 2000s: Natalie Portman, the newest face for Miss Dior Chérie, again directed by Sofia Coppola (as reported previously)and a viable Oscar contestant for her performance in Black Swan. It's funny to contemplate that the previous music choice for Sofia's commercial a few years ago was a tune by Brigitte Bardot, the very person who first sang the controversial orgasmic song by Gainsbourg; that version was revoked by her husband Gunter Sachs nevertheless. Serge then turned to Jane Birkin to record it to the outcry of the Vatican and the song became immortal in that version.

Nowadays it doesn't sound half as controversial as it did, but is the new commercial for Dior really reflecting the free sprit of the 60s and early 70s in an age that is so conservative despite the bom-bom swaying in hip hop videos and the public display of intimate personal details? "I am the wave, you the naked island"? "I go and I come in between your loins"? I think not...
Apart from a little suggestive play with a tie (posing as both a blindfold and a sort of leash) you'll have to squint your mental muscles into perceiving any more sexual innuendo in the Natalie Portman commercia!. The video is more romantic cliche than racy, although it's certainly more man-to-woman interactive than the previous "I fell fine trailblazing across Paris by myself" commercial by Coppola.
Talk about Natalie Portman stripping for the spot only resulted in her vaguely beginning to remove a few clothes with no more titillation, unless a bath tub scene where she's immersed up to her neck wearing sunglasses is considered risque. It looks like a shot from "Garden State"really, maybe a tip of the hat from the director. Sofia Coppola however really knows how to direct the whole into making us want to douse ourselves in overpriced Eau. Taking in mind I have an aversion to the overly sweet character of the original Miss Dior Chérie (but I do like L'Eau version), I find this is quite a feat! What do you think?

NB. The commercials are set to accompany the latest reformulation of the Eau de Parfum by head Dior perfumer F.Demachy.

Natalie Portman: new face for parfums Dior

Natalie Portman had signed a beauty endorsement deal as the new face for Dior, as far back as June 2010. The talented and beautiful young actress who announced just two days ago, on Monday 27th, that she's been engaged and is happily pregnant, has starred in such box-office hits as Star Wars as well as critically aclaimed films such as Closer and Black Swan. Good coup, Dior, as Natalie is so famous as to even have an MP3 download on Amazon titled "Natalie Portman Poops" (I kid you not! )
Christian Dior chief Claude Martinez called Natalie “charismatic and elegant.” The actress, on the other hand, who hasn't worked in the beauty business before, says: “I’m pretty casual in my beauty routine in my real life. Some might say sloppy.” She also regards beauty, for which she's often justifiably praised, as an obstacle or annoyance: “Beauty can be a hindrance, especially if that’s the only thing that matters to other people. I’m also aware that being considered attractive can be a huge factor in getting work in my profession. Beauty can be boring if you’re with a guy who is focused on his looks or your looks all the time. I know a lot of male actors who are totally obsessed with creating a certain look.” [source of quotes]



Her presence in the Dior portfolio will involve her fronting the new perfume campaign, substituting model Maryna Linchuk, for Miss Dior Chérie. The new commercial will again be directed by Sofia Coppola (see the on-the-set shot above), after the very successful clip she had shot with Maryna 3 years ago. It coincides beautifully with the reopening celebration of Dior’s 57th Street boutique in N.Y.C., where Portman appeared to celebrate alongside Dior’s head designer John Galliano.
The print campaign was shot by Tim Walker while Sofia Coppola directs the TV ads. The advertisements will see the sultry star, who's 29, with a hunky young model, appearing in glossies and on screens in March 2011. “I felt like a big old cougar. He’s, like, 20. The commercial is subliminal advertising for my film,” Portman quipped, as it features a shot of a white swan. If one feels that way at 29, though, just imagine...

We're very much looking forward to them all the same!

photos via fashion style and stylefrizz.

Miss Dior Cherie by Dior and Sofia Coppola

If the winter doldrums have taken their toll on your mood and it needs to be alleviated, we have a little cheering up for you: The director's cut of the new commercial for Christian Dior's Miss Dior Chérie fragrance in a high quality video-clip is here on Perfume Shrine for your delectation! Directed in a deliriously and infectiously happy mood by Sofia Coppola ~of "Lost in Translation" and "The Virgin Suicides" fame~ it features model Maryna Linchuk and the song "Moi Je Joue" (=me, I play) by Brigitte Bardot. One of the few Bardot hit-songs not written by Serge Gainsbourg by the way. (You can watch the original song with pics of Bardot here).




The super cute spring-like feel of traipsing through the cobblestone roads on a bike wearing a pastel dress makes me yearn for my spring break while the displayed macaroons in every shade of the rainbow with the Dior bottle as a comparable delicacy amongst them makes it hard to follow a strict dietary regimen (not that Maryna Linchuk needs it!). As if to consolidate the idea of whose designer house the fragrance is, we also get to watch Maryna trying on dresses in bright, upbeat hues in the Christian Dior couture house.




The balloons remind me of the airborne hot-air balloon in the commercial for Yves Saint Laurent Paris fragrance. Obviously Paris in the collective subconsious of cinematographers is tied to balloons! Let's hope not to air-headness (hot or otherwise) though, because it would be completely unjust. It's interesting to note that in this clip the Miss Dior Chérie bottle rests atop a 60s-styled issue of Vogue magazine on the dresser, its pedigree and artistic history a subtle allusion to the history of Dior's house as well. Even though the travesty of emblazoning a semi-old name (Miss Dior is the classic of classics perfume of Christian Dior) on a completely novel scent is confusing to the 9th degree, you have to admit!
The old school cinematography more than makes up for it, nevertheless, recalling a more colourful take on sixties New Wave French cinema making me almost close to revisiting the tooth-achingly sweet fruity floral of Miss Dior Chérie: Who said advertising is not an art-form?

Previous, less successful in my opinion, commercial clips for Miss Dior Chérie can be found here (with Reiley Keough) and here (a making of, with Lily Donalson).Notice a hair-colour pattern throughout? Just saying!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Advertising series, Christian Dior series.

Clip originally uploaded by aymarius on Youtube. Pics via fashionphotography.blogspot.com

Chypre series 3: the new contestants

 If we are to talk about New Chypres (also nouveau chypres or "pink chypres" see below), we need to clarify some things. If you're new to Perfume Shrine's Chypre Series, please refer to the following basic articles:
What ARE "chypre perfumes"?
What are the aesthetics of chypre fragrances?
What's the history and zeitgeist of "chypre" evolution?

In our quest for chypre perfumes we stumble upon a peculiar phenomenon: there are scarcely any true chypres getting produced in the last 25 years!! Why is that? The answer is two-fold and fascinating in its denouement.

First of all, there is the matter of ingredients getting replaced and restricted, with oakmoss being the most crucial and prominent one as mentioned before. However surely this is a very recent phenomenon that only lately has seriously affected perfumers and houses into producing fragrances that do not make use of this elusive, wonderfully sensual ingredient. For example it was only at the beginning of the year that Mitsouko begun its journey into its latest reformulation, the one that lowers the oakmoss magnificence into the accountant-minded IFRA guidelines. Perhaps it's just as well that the process is going slowly in those instances so one can stockpile a favourite version/vintage while they still can. Labdanum is also slowly being replaced by other ingredients. Miss Dior, this legendary New Look debutante has had a makeover by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The effect is not quite as endearingly old-fashioned as it used to be. The sister fragrance (or should I say evil step-sister?) Miss Dior Cherie is the new direction in which the pendulum swings.

Nevertheless there must have been something else besides ingredients' embargo at play, influencing trends and production, which we will explore in another installment on the Chypre series real soon.

In the meantime, it might be interesting to note that after what seemed a total eclipse of chypres in releases of late years, there has been a new category of fragrances coming out slowly but surely that although not typical of their family they bear the illustrious label regardless.

They encompass lovely watercolours like Narciso for Her by Narciso Rodriguez, the coquette qui fait la coquinne Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel (classed either as floriental or fruity chypre, leaning more to an orientalised patchouli), the grapefuit laden abstraction of Ralph Lauren's Pure Turqoise , the sexy safron rosiness of Agent Provocateur that might have been at the vanguard of the trend.
These new entries into the galaxy of chypre have been ingeniously coined by Ayala Moriel as "pink chypres", simply because they exude a modern, young and girly air that is a novel take on the old sophistication of a classic chypre.

Michael Edwards, the man who is responsible for the "Fragrances of the World" system is classifying them under the "mossy woods" umbrella as evidenced in the Sephora directory. Oakmoss is mentioned in the introductory note, yet it is distinctly shunning the invitation in several of those listed.

But then how conclusive are fragrance families and categories anyway?

Referenced in the series "Que sais-je?" in the volume Le Parfum Jean Claude Ellena notes:

I've taken part in the perfume classification committee of the Société Française des Parfumeurs, but nowadays I wonder what its use really is. [...]In today's olfactory classifications, I believe that the most valuable information lies in the perfume's date of creation, its name, and the name of the brand that launched it on the market. The date allows us to put perfumes in an evolutionary perspective (as long as we are able to smell them), while product names and brands give us some indication of the degree of creativity involved in each company. (p. 77-78)

(quote copied from Marcello on nowsmellthis)

Clearly this is a renouncement of formal classifications and perhaps a rather elitist streak, one might say, that runs into this 60 year old minimalist perfumer responsible for such masterpieces as First by Van Cleef, Declaration by Cartier, the Hermessences and the Jardin series (en Mediteranee and sur le Nil) for Hermes and numerous others. But then again Jean Claude has a family which cherises aromas in everyday life and sits down to Christmas dinner hiding little aromatic gifts under the napkins. His daughter is also a perfumer, Cecile Ellena, the co-nose of The Different Company. It goes with the territory.

With that in mind, if we choose to take his side, this new category of chypres is worth exploring even though they lack the characteristic bergamot-oakmoss accord that is typical of the classics of yesterday.

So what goes into the production of those modern chypres?

The typical bergamot top of classic chypres has long been known to be phototoxic, resulting in brown patches on the skin upon exposure to UV radiation. It has been advised ever since I can recall to avoid placing perfume in spots that would be exposed to the sun, exactly because of that. And it has been well-known and accepted for decades. Why it has become such a derisive issue now, which demands the restriction of its use in minute amounts or the clear labelling on the box, is a matter that has to do with complicated legal reasons and the fervent desire of companies to not get entantangled in judicial battles that would cost them fortunes.
Bergamot has thus been shunned for other citrusy and bright top notes that include fresh and slightly bitter grapefruit, sweet mandarin and tangerine (like in Miss Dior Cherie), homely orange in some cases, and even floral essences that marry the florancy with the high volatility and sparkle of hesperides, like neroli or even orange blossom (as is the case in Narciso which uses a synthesized orange blossom that is also apparent in this year's launches for men Dior Farhenheit 32 and Gaultier Fleur du Male).

Fruity notes such as mangosteen (Hillary Duff With Love), lichi, watermelon and passion fruit (Masaki Matsushima Masaki), strawberry (Miss Dior Cherie)and berries (Badgley Mischka) are also appearent, although this might have to do with the overuse of fruity aromas in perfumes of recent launch anyway.
Sweet gourmand touches (caramelised pop corn of Miss Dior Cherie and creme de cassis in Badgley Mischka) might also be attributed to that and not to any desire to revolutionise the chypre notion any further. Which is just as good...

Oakmoss and labdanum have been substituted by grassy, pungent vetiver ~that aromatic root from Java that is the dream of every engineer as it binds itself into substructure; and by patchouli ~that indian bush with the sweet smelling leaves that produce the most potent smell in the vegetal kingdom. The two have been the base accord of almost every new chypre to emerge since 2000 and are going steady in their triumphal marching into perfumery even in seperate capacities. They are tremendously popular notes in both feminine and masculine perfumes.

Often spicy notes, such as coriander (Emporio Armani City Glam Her), or herbal ones, such as angelica, mingle with various musks to accent the murky character of the new chypres. Producing thus oeuvres that although they bear no relation to the old-fashioned intense warmth and powder of their predecessors, they appeal to similar audiences; audiences who have been conditioned to love chypres since childhood perhaps, be it from received memories through beloved family members, or through an appreciation for the unidentifiable character of those Old World sumptuous fragrances.

In any case the future for modern chypres is looking very bright indeed!


Next installement will tackle matters of aesthetics.

Top pic sent to me by mail unaccredited, pic of Narciso bottle courtesy of Nordstrom.com