Launched in 2025 as a limited edition, Born in Roma Donna Rendez-Vous Ivory is the third edition of Valentino’s Rendez-Vous collection, inspired by Studio 54 in the late 1970s. Green mandarin and orange blossom lead to a marshmallow accord, set on musks and Madagascar vanilla, in a bottle lacquered in ivory.
Kimberly Wilson, of Essence, a great admirer of Donna Born in Roma, defends Rendez-Vous Ivory against its detractors: less marshmallow than announced, more orange blossom, a grown-up sweetness, refined and easy to wear, more elegant than gourmand.
Olfastory’s review
Kimberly Wilson, Essence, September 2025
In her column of September 4, 2025, Kimberly Wilson, who counts Donna Born in Roma among her five favorite fragrances, describes an opening of fresh, tangy mandarin, bound to a marshmallow accord both powdery and fluffy, and an orange blossom that blends with the vanilla.
She reads it as a grown-up interpretation of sweetness, far from candy, wearable at twenty-five as at fifty-five. In the drydown, the mandarin fades and orange blossom, marshmallow and vanilla intertwine on a cloud of airy musk, the DNA of the original remaining discreet.
After several weeks, she judges that the negative reviews missed the point: past the first hour, the fragrance smells more of orange blossom than of marshmallow, and what it loses in gourmand appeal, it gains in refinement and ease.