Fashion Illustration René Gruau

Ohhhh ‘Diorling’ !! I am dank with Diorling this evening, I am rather besotted with its salubrious Belle de Jour atmospherics. The original tweed and riding boots feel has been unstitched and restructured by Dior’s in-house perfumer François Demachy. He has avoided facsimile and pastiche, instead producing a scent of careful vintage reference and genuine modern wearability.

Dior Diorling by François Demachy: The Silver Fox

Controversy swirls in the air when it comes to perfume reformulation. Bloggers, reviewers and critics bemoan the death of olfactory creation, the demise of beauty. I am not sure it is quite so cut and dried. Extinction is part of the way we live. Time moves on. I personally like the idea of imagining how beautiful things once were, it allows me the chance to dream, to speculate scent into a historical context with fashion, manners and language. All of these are constantly reinterpreted, reinvented and thrown out into the world. Fragrance is no different, themes come and go, dipping in and out of lifetimes. I know purists will always argue the case for retaining original formulae or leaving well alone. I can understand this, perfume is deeply personal but re-interpretation, done with reverence and intelligence by talented perfumers can yield interesting and illuminating results.

Vintage Dior Diorling ad by René Gruau

I have learned to wait and see with Dior, François Demachy has produced some delightfully respectful re-orchestrations and his newer creations pay homage to a carefully preserved image of pretty vintage Dior. The new re-orchestration of Diorling is part of the Les Créations de Monsieur Dior collection, Demachy’s thoughtful and reverential wanderings through Dior’s extensive archives. Originally created by Paul Vacher in 1963, Diorling (supposedly a play on the English word Darling…) was the first posthumous scent to be released after the death of Monsieur Dior.

 René Gruau Fashion Ilustration  Dior Vernis 1963

It was a homage to the Le Style Anglais, the discreet charms of tweed, leather and pearls, worn at balls, in vast empty country piles or slumming it in the unsettled vibrancy of 60’s London. Dior had already scandalised with his New Look across the Channel, provoking outrage and shock with controversial hemlines and silhouettes.

René Gruau Fashion Illustration

For the British gentry, sartorial life seemed undisturbed but for minor upsets in hemlines and collar lengths. Their refined style rarely changed, the staple wardrobe of knocked back cloth decay, heirloom parures, brogues, tweed skirts, leather gloves, hats, riding boots and millinery still reigned. The original 1963 Diorling was a tribute to this pretty unshakable refinement, an innate sense of inherited, shrugged-on chic that stood unflinching in the face of tumult and contemporary assault. The leather was more forceful in the Vacher version, striding upfront, a whiff of muck and smoke on the riding boot. The all important Dior triumvirate of rose, jasmine and lily of the valley was brutally aristocratic and aloof, shot through with the countryside verdancy of mulchy, down to earth hyacinth with its reek of wet bluebell woods, damp oakmoss and bark. A delicious sensual chypré – dry and erotically charged as only things lost forever in time can be.

René Gruau Le Iris "Flowers"

This time around Diorling’s leather is more underplayed, a softer tonal effect, appearing after the floral notes. The bergamot in the head gives the opening of the scent a shivering lift and sparkle, a genuine burst of joy, followed by Demachy’s modern addition of jasmine to swell the heart. This has added a huge sense of beauty and softness to the new version of Diorling, really rounding off any rough edges and I’m smelling galbanum and some soft spice, cinnamon perhaps. The patchouli in the base anchors the new formula in the modern day, lending the structure dirt and roots while the more subdued leather facet takes time to warm up and rise through the preceding materials.

René Gruau Le Masque

New Diorling is wonderfully desiccated, with the most dusky and capacious drydown. The initial rather feminine decorum soon gives way to a much more ambiguous persona – one of grace, pulchritude and whipcracking bitchery. It is different from the vintage Paul Vacher scent, but that has gone forever. But there is sensual meat on the resurrected bones. There is love and reverence in the mix, but also a sense of innovation, an understanding that times change and perfume must adapt and reflect the complex mores and attitudes surrounding them. Demachy’s Diorling is a subtle, mucky lover with secrets and leathered subterfuge. I am more than happy to spend hours lost in the reverie of whipcracks, floral fade and glamour.

Disclosure: From my own collection

-The Silver Fox, Senior Editor and Editor of The Silver Fox

Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

Editor's Note: Paul Vacher was the nose for the Original Le Galion fragrances (most notably Sortilège),collaborated with Jean Carles on Miss Dior and Andre Fraysee on Arpege