“My craft may be very ancient in a way,” says perfumer Francis Kurkdjianas he sinks deeper right into a cream-colored couch on the Aman Latest York. “There isn’t much difference between myself and a perfumer 100 years ago.”

But a couple of blocks away looms a reminder that Kurkdjian’s role is, in reality, different from most: the LVMH Tower, which serves because the Latest York City headquarters for Christian Dior. In 2021, Kurkdjian was announced because the house’s perfume creation director, a title he holds along with founding father of his own line, Maison Francis Kurkdjian (for those who’ve ever walked through the Upper East Side, you’ve probably caught a whiff of certainly one of his most famous — and famously duped — creations, the $325 Baccarat Rouge 540).

It’s not Kurkdjian’s first time working with Dior: He created three now-discontinued fragrances back in 2004, and before that, worked closely with perfumer Calice Becker at Givaudan in 1999 as she created the unique J’Adore. Back then, as reported by Allure in 2007, the transient Becker received from executives was to create a perfume that was “sexy like a stiletto and as comfortable as a pair of Tod’s.” The resulting mix combined ylang-ylang, rose, and jasmine — and spawned a Charlize Theron-fronted franchise price gazillions of dollars. (That’s, after all, an unofficial estimate.)

Upon his appointment to Dior, Kurkdjian had his own set of marching orders: reinvent the brand’s fragrance juggernaut. He began within the brand’s archives, pouring through Christian Dior’s personal possessions and the home’s most emblematic designs. “Even when I would like to create something recent, I actually have 75 years of heritage behind me. It is not only a fresh start. It is a fresh start built on something already consistent,” says Kurkdjian.

One keepsake that caught his eye was a flower catalog from which Mr. Dior’s mother would order seeds for his or her family garden in Normandy. “Christian Dior had a fascination with and a love for flowers. He could name all of them by their Latin names,” Kurkdjian says. “He had 52 acres of land where he used to grow flowers for perfumes.” At the identical time, Kurkdjian was inspired by the home’s use of gold in its fashions and accessories: “In French, l’or is gold. And once we say Dior, we pronounce it [almost the same way]. Dior is gold and gold is Dior.”

And thus Dior L’Or de J’Adore (say that thrice fast) was born. The brand new bottle alludes to a sexier, more sensual tackle the unique. The signature amphora shape is similar but now those golden bracelets across the neck have been heated into dripping metal.