Babycat

Yves Saint Laurent added Babycat to its Le Vestiaire des Parfums in 2022. The collection translates the couturier’s iconic pieces, materials and addresses into fragrances; Babycat salutes the leopard print, which the house calls by that name. Dominique Ropion composed it.

According to the house, the leopard first appeared in the couturier’s collections in 1968, on a silk dress. The Fall-Winter 1982-1983 haute couture collection made it an icon, and the print has since dressed evening gowns, pussy-bow blouses and stilettos.

Vanilla in the wild

To capture the feline, the house chose vanilla, which it considers the most feline note in perfumery. Dominique Ropion works with a Bourbon vanilla infusion created for Yves Saint Laurent, raw and intense, whose leathery nuance, naturally present in the pod, he wanted to heighten.

The perfumer builds the fragrance on the contrast between this leathery facet and the gourmand character of vanilla, creamy, warm and sensual. In Babycat, he says, the pod regains its wild nature, like a panther set free.

The house presents Babycat as a unisex fragrance, a raw vanilla that carries both the rawness and the sophistication of the Yves Saint Laurent style. Launched in 125 milliliters, the eau de parfum now also comes in 75 milliliters.