Miss Dior Esprit de Parfum Original

On February 12, 1947, Christian Dior presented his first collection in his salons at 30 avenue Montaigne, a revolution that came to be called the New Look. To accompany it, he asked the perfumer Paul Vacher for “a perfume that smells of love.” Miss Dior was sprayed lavishly through the salons on the day of the show.

The name pays tribute to Catherine Dior, the couturier’s sister, who was nicknamed Miss Dior. The perfume went on sale the same year, under the direction of Serge Heftler-Louiche, at the head of the young Parfums Christian Dior company.

Two perfumers for a green chypre

The house credits the formula to Paul Vacher. Perfume historians associate Jean Carles with it: Elena Vosnaki describes it as a Carles formula composed by Vacher, and Robin, of Now Smell This, leaves the authorship to one, the other or both.

The perfume starts from the chypre accord set by Coty in 1917 and adds the greenness of galbanum. Robin reports, after Michael Edwards, the influence of Coty’s Chypre and Balmain’s Vent Vert; Elena Vosnaki likens its first moments to Carven’s Ma Griffe.

From Miss Dior to Miss Dior Original

In 1992, Dior relaunched the perfume in new packaging to revive its sales in the United States; Robin notes that the juice was then said to be unchanged. Elena Vosnaki credits Edmond Roudnitska with a rearrangement of the extrait that same year.

In 2011, François Demachy, the house perfumer, retouched the formula, and Dior began calling the elder fragrance Miss Dior Original. The move went with LVMH taking its formulas back in hand, as Le Monde reported in May 2011.

The bare name passed in 2012 to the former Miss Dior Chérie, itself reformulated, which today gives its name to a whole line. The Original keeps the 1947 accord, under a label that sets it apart from its younger sisters.

Today’s esprit de parfum

Dior sells the Original as an esprit de parfum, in a 100 ml bottle, and presents it as the couturier’s very first perfume, whose avant-garde green floral chypre accord is said to have revolutionized perfumery and to bear his signature. A lighter Eau de Toilette Originale keeps the same accord.