On Wednesday, Balenciaga will launch its first contemporary fine fragrance collection. The 10 perfumes, priced at $320 each, will be available in select Balenciaga boutiques in Europe and North America and its e-commerce site, while two discovery sets of differing smaller sizes of each scent will be available for $85 and $395 respectively. A more global rollout will follow.
The scents are an extension and a modern reinterpretation of Le Dix, a perfume created by Cristóbal Balenciaga in the 1940s. After sourcing an original bottle of the scent from a private collector, the Kering-owned fashion house began reimagining the fragrance for the modern customer, and developing a range including No Comment (woody with green notes), Muscara (smoky ambrette and iris) and 100% (rich Rose Damascena). The original Le Dix, named for the fashion house’s historic address at No. 10 Avenue George in Paris and redolent with powdery iris, is updated with aldehydes to add a contemporary sharpness, and is a hero SKU of the line.
With its launch, Balenciaga is spanning both old and new. The bottle design closely mimics that of the original line-up, with a heavy glass cap, hand-tied ribbon and rectangular bottles, evoking the glamour and decadence of the era. But other touches are decidedly more contemporary — the box that houses the smaller discovery scents opens like a cigarette packet, is a dark monochrome grey and features Balenciaga’s modern sans serif typeface.
The launch comes at a precipitous time both for the fragrance industry and for Kering, as the former is showing initial signs of a contraction in its growth, and luxury peers like Bottega Veneta, Rabanne and Balmain who recently debuted fine fragrance collections are navigating their expansion. Fellow Kering stablemate Bottega Veneta’s offering is priced at $450, Rabanne’s at $315 while popular niche brands like Roja Dove and Maison Francis Kurkdjian also sell perfumes for over $300. (Balenciaga previously made perfumes like Florabotanica at a lower price point.)
For Kering, which launched a dedicated beauty division in 2023, successfully making a mark in fragrance could help offset its ailing fashion business. The launch of fragrances both from Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, as well as its continued expansion of the perfume maker Creed which it acquired for more than $3 billion in 2023, speaks to a strategy focussed on owning premium perfumes.
Much of the movement in the perfume industry is dictated by influencers on TikTok, where esoteric and otherwise unexpected scents often prove the most popular, or brands with a strong story or provenance. Longer-lasting and more intense perfumes are also growing in popularity.
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