DIANA VREELAND: Scents from Heaven

26 years after her dead, Diana Vreeland is still a huge inspiration. Marc Jacobs paid homage to this extraordinary woman in his winter collection, and now her grandson Alexander Vreeland launched wonderful perfumes.

Absolutely Vital is a sandalwood fragrance and ode to Ms. Vreeland love of India, who everyday dabbed a bit of sandalwood oil behind her ears before walking out of the house. Extravagance Russe was created as homage to Russia and Orientalism. It’s a warm, modern fragrance with amber.

“She loved fragrance.”

“She would have loved it,” says Alexander Vreeland.  “I think she would wear Daringly Different to dinner at home with friends, Absolutely Vital to the office, and Simply Divine all weekend.” Did his grandmother ever talk about launching perfumes? “No, but I know that she and my grandfather were very involved with a scent that Pucci launched in the 60’s.  She loved fragrance. It was important to me that the fragrances be luxurious and of the highest quality. We have developed a collection that are not replicas of what she loved to wear but what we imagined she would wear if she were a modern woman today.

“Creating the names of each fragrance was such fun! ”

Recently the seventh scent was launched. Daringly Different is an iris oud: smoky, dreamy and strong.  It’s very wonderful and I wear it frequently. This year we’ll launch further into home with more candles. Lipstick and nail polish are in the cards but not for the next year. “In designing the brand I wanted to take two sides of my grandmother: her passion for colours, and her love of words.

Creating the names of each fragrance was such fun! The bottles and packaging are very colourful, that was my idea, but the first samples were all wrong. Then, Fabien Baron looked at it and made it really sophisticated and beautiful. He added the tassel for fun, which was a signature of my grandmother’s. Inside the box are great quotes by grandmother.”