Pour Femme

Pour Femme is the first fragrance from Dolce & Gabbana. It was born in 1992, when Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were already dressing a woman of southern Italy, Sicilian above all. It first bore only the label’s name; the name Pour Femme took hold with the 2012 formula.

Jean-Pierre Mary and Martine Pallix

Jean-Pierre Mary composed the 1992 fragrance. Elena Vosnaki of Perfume Shrine and Victoria Frolova of Bois de Jasmin pair him with Martine Pallix, and Elena Vosnaki places both perfumers at IFF. Victoria Frolova sees in it a glamorous aldehydic floral, still marked by the 1980s.

Elena Vosnaki recounts a studio legend: the two designers supposedly threw the trial versions against the wall of their studio to judge the effect, and cried victory when two of them matched. She files this story among the strokes of genius the industry likes to tell.

Sicily, from Tornatore to Testino

Advertising anchors the fragrance in Sicily, Domenico Dolce’s native land. In 1994, Giuseppe Tornatore filmed Monica Bellucci there in black and white, to music by Ennio Morricone; in 2012, Mario Testino shot Laetitia Casta and Noah Mills there, in the light of a village wedding.

2012: a revised formula

In 2012, the house relaunched its first two fragrances, the 1992 feminine and its masculine counterpart, Pour Homme. It spoke of a simple fine-tuning; Angela of Now Smell This and Thomas Dunckley of The Candy Perfume Boy nonetheless found an entirely new composition, fruity and sweet.

The new eau de parfum came out in the fall of 2012 in 50 and 100 ml bottles, accompanied by a body emulsion and a shower gel. The bottle grew slimmer, and the pink juice took on a darker cap than the bright red of the original.

The house’s message

At the relaunch, the house described the Dolce & Gabbana woman as passionate, sensual, and maternal, born of a Mediterranean made of harmonies and contrasts. It claimed to seek a synthesis between its love of tradition and a desire for the contemporary.

Today the house presents the eau de parfum as the embodiment of the Mediterranean woman, passionate and sensual. It classes it among floral and amber notes and attributes its charm to the balance of green mandarin, orange blossom, and marshmallow.