Balenciaga goes old-school for its brand new fragrance launch

You might expect a Balenciaga perfume to smell something like stale cigarettes, the aftermath of a wild night out, and the Central Saint Martins studios on hand-in week. But as the brand unveils its new fragrance line, launching today (September 10), it’s clear that this time, they’ve opted for something more classic.

The brand’s new perfume collection pays homage to the Maison’s first fragrance, Le Dix, launched in 1947 by Cristóbal Balenciaga. In the years since, the line got discontinued and Balenciaga’s more recent scent experiments in their runway shows have leaned into the rise of abstract fragrance: think the SS20 show, where scents of antiseptic, blood, money, and petrol permeated the European blue spiral stage, or the AW25 show, which transformed its venue into a city street scented with fresh asphalt. This new line sees them take a decisive turn toward the classic.

It took the brand three years to analyse and reconstruct the original Le Dix and even longer for archivists to locate a bottle of the perfume – 15 years to be exact. The recreated scent, which centres around iris, is the centrepiece of the collection. Its name refers to the address of Balenciaga’s original couture salon, atelier and perfume store in Paris, where the House’s couture shows are still staged today.

The scents in the rest of the collection are all brand new, but with names which tie them to the history and legacy of Balenciaga. No Comment references Cristóbal’s famous refusal to give interviews and offers a rough-cut, resinous woody aroma. Extra packs a peppery kick, and Muscura is reminiscent of freshly applied varnish cut with iris.

While at first glance the gorgeous bottles are something you’d find in a lived-in lobby of a shabby chic hotel – The Bowery maybe – or on the vanity of your grandmother’s most fabulous friend, the packaging was purposefully kept old school. The team scanned images of the original bottles and used archival sketches of the antiquated packaging and advertising to create the finished result.

The Balenciaga collection of fragrances will be available from September 10 at the Balenciaga perfume store located at the House’s historic address 10 avenue George V 75008, as well as at select Balenciaga stores in Europe and North America and on balenciaga.com.