We shared, in unmarked bottles, three of our favorite new fragrances with the talented photography students at New York Film Academy and asked them to capture the essence of each shot through their lenses.
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MAISON CHRISTIAN DIOR SAKURA
Dior’s legendary nose François Demachy bottled his idyllic memory of blooming cherry blossoms from one of his many trips to Japan. Without knowing anything about the scent, both Jazmin Hamilton (bottom left) and Baz Here (top left) picked up on the lightness of the fragrance, depicting pastel balloons and airy tulle. And with no awareness of the Japanese connection, Lotta Lemetti intuited an Ikebana-esque tablescape (bottom right). A medley of plush, pink blooms came to mind for Daryl Spiegel (top image), who was reminded of his “nanna, an artist who loved working with fresh flowers,” and Alina Grafkina (top right), who smelled “very soft, gentle flowers.”
BYREDO ELEVENTH HOUR
In 2018’s greatest (and perhaps only?) fine fragrance inspired by the apocalypse, perfumer Jérome Epinette masterfully translated Byredo founder Ben Gorham’s brief: “the end of everything” combined with Swiss explorer Ella Maillart’s 1951 visit to Kathmandu. Spiegel (top left) captured the peppery-citrus ban timmur note with his high-desert landscape, and Lemetti’s (bottom left) paper airplane evokes Maillart’s travel lust. The blend of juicy fig and warm tonka bean make this fragrance as alluring as it is lasting—Grafkina’s (bottom right) “silky spice” in her image of the scent’s dreamy, neon sillage. And most surprising of all, Dobra (top right) nailed the end-of-the- world vibe with her shot of roiling lava that she described as “the time when darkness lays upon the kingdom.”
DIANA VREELAND STAGGERINGLY BEAUTIFUL
Perfumer Pascal Guarin’s sparkling fruity-floral pays homage to the late Diana Vreeland’s love of summers spent in the Mediterranean and the endless beauty inspiration she found there. Guarin’s nod to sweeping breezes and crystal-clear water is perfectly echoed in Spiegel’s (top right) shot of the coastline and “crisp air on the beach as the sun sets” and Grafkina’s (top left) photo of a woman twirling in the wind. Lemetti (bottom left) identified the fragrance’s green notes—fig leaf and daffodil—with her “strong feelings of green, grassy plants,” which, when married with zesty Sicilian bergamot, fruity fig and earthy Haitian vetiver, create an addictive cocktail Dobra (bottom right) called “dream-like,” as represented by her abstract shape in soothing shades of blue.
