Translated by Bethszabee Garner

Creative Director of Christian Dior Perfumes , Francis Kurkdjian has created “Les Récoltes majeures,” a trilogy of exceptional compositions dedicated in turn, to lily of the valley, rose, and jasmine. A masterful exercise in style, it combines a tribute to the couturier with botanical expertise and cutting-edge technology.

Sirine Errammach: “Les Récoltes majeures” presents itself as fragments of floral memory. Did you initially have in mind the emotion of a vanished garden, or the pure sensation of a living flower?

Francis Kurkdjian: The two aspects merge to form a single image: that of Christian Dior leaning over one of his favorite flowers—lily of the valley, rose, and jasmine—in the heart of the garden at La Colle Noire, his haven of peace in Provence. The trio of soliflores I created is a tribute to this fleeting moment, to the touching image of a genius designer who loved flowers more than anything, who cultivated them by the hectare and drew inspiration from them for his dresses and perfumes. Capturing the vivid, dazzling beauty of a flower still blooming on its stem was what mattered to me in celebrating the spirit of Dior.

Sirine Errammach: A flower is ephemeral, a fragrance more lasting. How do you translate this tension between transience and memory in your creation?

F.K.: To each their own temporality! A flower is certainly more ephemeral than a perfume, but perfume itself is much more ephemeral than a Bernini marble, a Picasso painting, or a Jean-Michel Othoniel installation. A flower is certainly a promise of fleeting beauty, even a moment of suspended beauty, but perfume is the memory of that promise. My work consists precisely in capturing the moment when the flower offers itself, to freeze it without freezing it, to prolong it without betraying it. This is the story I wanted to tell, keeping in mind Christian Dior's passion for perfume flowers and his budding love for Colle Noire, which he unfortunately did not know very well. Each of these marvels must be approached with a vision that is both precise and free, but also with the joy and good fortune of having access to Dior's great floral extracts combined with modern extraction technologies. This wide range allows us to “read” a flower and reveal its quintessence. A flower is like a musical score. To make the silent lily of the valley sing is to seek out its extraordinary freshness when it blooms in May, thanks to jasmine grandiflorum and rose centifolia absolutes. Recapturing the beauty of a bare rose, green and vibrant, becomes possible with a sublime rose absolute. Similarly, exceptional raw materials are key to obtaining a jasmine that evokes total intoxication, the fragrant vapor that carries you away when the jasmine fields bloom at the end of summer.

Sirine Errammach: You use cutting-edge scientific tools to capture the “soul” of a flower. How far can technology serve olfactory poetry?

F.K.: Technology does not freeze the flower in any way, as it is a tool at the service of creation and therefore of emotions! On the contrary, it gives it movement, allowing us to recreate the impression of a “living” flower as it exudes its complex and intense facets before being picked. For jasmine, for example, the electromagnetic frequency analysis technique makes it possible to obtain jasmine water and provide an analysis, a completely new “model” of jasmine that inspired me for my formula by providing me with information that was previously unknown. Honeyed and milky facets are revealed that are lost with conventional extraction techniques.

Sirine Errammach: Contrary to today's instantaneity, you advocate slowness, in terms of harvesting, gestures, and natural time. How does this temporality change the way you create?

F.K.: Rodin put it very well: “What is done with time, time respects.” Celebrating Dior flowers as Christian Dior cultivated them on his estate means following in his footsteps. He was a nature lover from childhood. He learned the names of flowers from his mother, even learning their Latin names. You have to embrace the long and perilous cycle of nature and flower harvesting to really understand them. You have to watch the sky and hope for perfect, clement weather. This “attitude” dictates the rest: having special jute bags made for harvesting roses, finding the best possible shape for the jasmine basket, paying attention to how the flowers are picked and stored. They all have their own specific characteristics. Meticulousness takes time, but it is essential in this celebration of nature and gardens. Luxury also means respecting nature.

Sirine Errammach: You are continuing the Dior legend while adding your own signature. Where do you draw the line between respect and reinvention?

F.K.: Since my arrival, I have been following in Monsieur Dior's footsteps. I try to resonate with him. Didn't he say, “Respect tradition and dare to be insolent, because one cannot exist without the other”?

Sirine Errammach: This trilogy almost sounds like a musical score. How did you conceive the sequence of these three scents?

F.K.: I was guided by the calendar of nature, so I followed the order in which flowers bloom: lily of the valley in late April/early May, centifolia rose is harvested in May in Grasse, and finally, jasmine is picked from July to late October.

Perfumes available in a limited edition of 200 pieces at a price of €1,200.

Article written by Sirine Errammach, featured in issue no. 12 of OniriQ magazine.

Cover image: Photo credit Piotr Stoklosa for Christian Dior Fragrances