As the maître parfumeur of Dior, Demachy has the purse strings to invest in growers and diversify his flower suppliers. Prior to Dior, he spent 28 years overseeing the perfumes at Chanel, where he honed an acuity for working directly with flower farmers. The fact that Christian Dior launched a brand based on a love for sumptuous fresh blooms makes ensuring a steady supply an even more urgent duty for Demachy.īorn in Grasse and trained in the study of raw materials at the fragrance manufacturer Charabot (now Robertet), Demachy is particularly attuned to how changes in the land, soil, and climate can alter the alchemy of perfumes. Upon joining Dior in 2006, Demachy asked for control over the sourcing of his ingredients. In Dior’s case, the strategy rests with the house’s master perfumer or “nose.” Perfume brands that depend on natural aromatics are grappling with the prospect of an impending shortage which could collapse their production cycles. For example, September now is very cold,” she says, noting that her 77-year old father, who used to run the farm, has never experienced temperatures dip to the 10 degree lows as they’ve had this season. “We have to adapt our work to the climate. Perfume brands that depend on natural aromatics are grappling with the prospect of an impending shortage.īiancalana nods quietly at the mention of climate change. Meanwhile, 92% of global vanilla production comes from countries classified as high and extreme risk in the CCEI, including Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.”Ī 2015 study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem also suggests that flowers are emitting less fragrance as global temperatures rise. “Haiti provides half the world’s supply of vetiver, a grass used in a host of fragrances, yet is the second most exposed country in the world to climate change, according to the CCEI. Sustainability resource Greenbiz paints an alarming picture: They classify Grasse as “extremely high risk” as well as several key regions that supply the world’s perfume ingredients. UK-based risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft publishes a Climate Change Exposure Index (CCEI) that describes how weather patterns will affect crop yields in the coming decades. Several key crops are already in short supply: Madagascar vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood, and vetivier. “As magical as it may be, a perfume is, above all, the art of raw materials,” he likes to say.įor over a decade, perfume experts have been fretting about how climate change will affect the $40 billion global perfume market. With the financial backing of the world’s richest luxury brand, Demachy locks in years-worth of harvests from growers around the world. Dior’s master perfumer, or “nose,” François Demachy, is a leading proponent of this philosophy. With the threat of climate change looming, perceptive perfumers are investing upstream and turning their attention to the soil. Though Dior’s perfumes do have synthetic components, like nearly all modern perfumes, flowers remain vital to its formula and brand image. To ensure a steady supply of flowers, big brands are entering into years-long exclusive contracts with growers. #DIOR PERFUME FULL#A full day’s harvest will yield just enough essence for one bottle of perfume. The amount of raw materials used to produce perfume is astounding: 600 kg of jasmine, or 6 million flowers, are needed to obtain 1 kg of absolute. “A perfume is, above all, the art of raw materials.” Compared to the predictability of lab-made scents, relying on nature-dependent sourcing is slow, laborious, less predictable-and when it all comes together, incredibly romantic. While more and more perfumes and household scents are entirely synthesized in laboratories today, luxury labels like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior (both owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) tout the superiority of natural materials in their formula. Access to La Domaine de Manon’s high quality blooms is a vital component of the Dior perfume’s supply chain.
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