Diorama

The elusive Diorama. (1948) (vintage edt) I purchased an estate from a perfumista. Her grandson asked me if Id also like her travel atomizers. I diddnt want to seem impolite, so I accepted. Most were half full with only initials on them to indicate the scents. I found one that was simply labeled..."Dior" I gently opened the canister screw top and swiped some contents on the back of my hand. Rich fruits opened with melon, peach and plum. A leathery nuance with gardenia leading the way...my eyes widened...this was Diorama I had been researching for years. I have the current Diorama edt by Dior, and Parfum de Therese, and vintage Femme parfum. The current Diorama plays harder on the fresh bright opening notes and jasmine..It echos more along the lines of an edt version of Malle's Parfum de Therese. Therese runs more melon chypre. Diorama is ripe plum (vintage prunol base by de laire is definately in here like in vintage Femme) Diorama is more related to vintage Femme parfum if I had to say where it lies in the spectrum. The caraway and spices enter very subtly more in the back of the composition. It reads much more warm musky and elegant. Cloves and cinnamon begin to tickle the back of my throat. The velvety plummy richness is still there, while the heart opens in two sections. First the gardenia floral, then the spicy phase. The castorum and civet begin to assert their presence adding to the harmony..perhaps the nitromusks were also added for a warm feel. The overall impression is incredibly balanced and smooth..where the references to sexy skin come into play. When the drydown begins another floral emerges with the musks. Smooth creamy woods and violet soften Diorama. This fragrance undulates, unfurls like a fine satin gown over a curvy glamorous movie star of another age. I leave you with one final thought on Diorama.. Jean Claude Ellena, talking about Diorama : "No perfume has ever had more complex form and formula, more feminine contours, more sensual, more carnal. It seduces us with its spicy notes: pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, the scent of skin. It is disturbing with its animalic notes: castoreum, civet, musk. All the accords and themes to follow are contained in this perfume: the wood and the violet, the plum and the peach, the jasmine and the spices." While I would have to agree that Dioramas formula is seamless and complex, we would see a different complex configuration of the grand floral/fruit/spicy/leather/musk chypre in Guy Robert's entry with Lasso in 1956. Jean Desprez Sheherazade (1938/1983) Van Cleef and Arpels Gem (1987) JCE's entry with his complex Rumba Extrait for Balenciaga (1989) Parfum de Therese (2000) and later Roja Dove Diaghilev are all members of the genre. However, Diorama's smooth finesse seems to be the queen of the genre. Edit: The extrait is divine.Different from edt.

(Extrait c. 1970s) Well, I suppose given the age of my extrait I should've expected the top notes were cooked... but they weren't. Joy! Although not as potent as I'm sure they were in their youth, they still have something to say. For a bottle roughly 50 years old, the perfume is still a golden color and not a deep brown. She might have some age on her, but she's still got plenty of life left. Though a bit short on energy, the bergamot and aldehydes still sparkle and bounce once the perfume gets a little heat from my skin. And then on quite quickly to the floral and fruit heart, which makes my knees so weak I have to be seated when smelling Diorama. White florals, red florals, purple florals, green melons, yellow tree fruit, and red berries galore - it's a mélange that's impossible for me to separate, but I wouldn't dare try. What would be the point of that. A testament to Roudnitska's genius, I barely get any sweetness from this. How did he do that.... How are there so many flowers and fruits in this heart but it's only mildly, pleasantly sweet - like smelling a smooth brown sugar rather than tasting a fake syrupy white sugar. Arresting without resistance, and rich beyond belief. It's simply stunning, but the fun doesn't stop there. Within a couple hours the flowers and fruits are gone... I think... but whatever it is that I am smelling is the creamiest and butteriest lactonic musky-type note I have ever smelled. It made me raise my eyebrows in shock. It could be a weird type of melon, but it smells fatty not fruity. Labdanum, castoreum, and/or civet, probably? It's incredibly bizarre yet wonderful and brilliant. After about an hour that fades away to bring back more purple and white florals. How the hell did he do that?! At nearly five hours in it's still floral, just hovering above my skin like the fragrance of a rich powder. Then, at nearly 7-8 hours later, the old girl's energy runs out and she leaves me with an extremely pleasant and smooth green and earthy accord of oakmoss and dry patchouli. Smelling this perfume over the course of a day was never, at any point, tiring or less than exciting. Each act is brilliant and intriguing, rich and complex, and completely transfixing. Diorama along with a few of the other Roudnitska Diors are legends for a reason. We don't make perfumes like this anymore, and what a shame that is. This little bottle of extrait is a treasure I hope to enjoy for the rest of my life.

To discover a vintage perfume that has endured the ravages of time can leave me speechless, much like being in the presence of a piece of art after having only seen it in print. Each sniff feels like traveling through a portal, and what emerges is the heart-wrenching beauty of a past that is slipping away, as vulnerable as the tears of grief. Perfume may have been long commercial and intended for the consumer, but there is concealed poetry among so much of it. The vintage Diorama EDC I own, for example, seems so muskmelon fleshy and palpable, an impasto bouquet in its heart. Its green-tinted peach and thickly churned butter, luminous white petals, and rich brown velvet drapery. It is both tension and resolve, both a refuge and a sybaritic advance. Edmond Roudnitska's use of Prunol in Diorama differs to me somewhat to that of vintage Femme in that it seems to color the florals rather than lies juxtaposed to them: imagine being able to make the distinction as to whether one is smelling plum-scented gardenias or gardenia-scented plums. It brings to mind orange peel and clove pomanders; the aroma of caraway seeds; running fingers through old furs lined with violet talc, in a cedar closet. Yet there's a translucency and a mellow animal presence, nothing of the Shocking sort, more a comforting mammalian warmth. A fine-drawn amber, fringed with moss, best describes the final hours on my skin. The wearing experience feels to me like being visited by the most beguiling ghost. A treasure among treasures.

I had forgotten how magnificent DIORAMA is! It’s a sound, movement, color and radiance creature, a chameleon. Unfolds like a Cirque du Soleil repertoire, moving to its own rhythms, replete with balancing acts, contortionists and fabulous music. The base notes hit me first— civet, castoreum and oak moss, edged with green. I teetered on the edge of a viridian crystal cliff... and that was with only one spray. An hour and animatic notes faded a bit and settled down and made room for the flowers to emerge. And what florals! White yellow florals, bright and dappled with soft shadows. Wraith like Animalica. There but silently gliding about. Ah it’s magnificent. After 6 hours mellowness surrounded my wrist but it was defined by uniqueness. Nothing like a stale, soapy, sweet generic finale. Florals waft as I move about. A hint of spiciness, just perfect. It’s been 10 hours and and it still throbs with my pulse. Superb composition, a miracle of perfumery. Monsieur Roudnitska a savant and a colossus straddling constellations of notes. And yes, I glimpse Diorella but only briefly. No Femme, which has been reformulated for some bizarre reason. Perfume de Therese is a sister to Diorama. No surprise there. Silage- 10 Longevity- 10 Quality outstanding. Well worth the price. But try before buy. Diorama is all about body chemistry. Bondage to oudh and rose?? It’s history. Can’t stand those any more.

This is for Diorama the vintage parfum. From the vial def old fashioned, dense fruity plummy, the warmth of spices, a dusky dark cherry leather chesterfield, a room of shelves dressed in well worn books. Strangely seductive, intoxicating, drawing you into a noir grasp. Couldn’t say I’d wear this except for the most particular and possibly peculiar of occasions, but it’s a delightful step back in time, a scent to have should you feel like a little osmotic time traveling at home. I can’t get away from it’s spice inflected space, brimming with the flavors and colors of black cherry, bordeaux, marsala, tobacco and, of course, the darkest plum. It’s a cold weather scent for seeking warmth in intimate spaces. A scent that invokes both the fireside and winter outside it defends against. It develops an illusion of smoke as the nutmeg, carraway and clove expand. A mysterious warmth that hushes icy winds and defies winter’s starless skies, that comforts like giant flakes on the windowpane. Though the name at the time of its creation was likely a deliberate play, I doubt Roudnitska could have envisioned how prescient it would turn out to be. Seventy seven years hence, Diorama offers just that: inviting us within vitrine walls for a glimpse into her time and place. 1hr 10m in, it is softer but intact. 6h 26m in, its basic essence is there; spicy warm leathery stonefruit. Delightful. 9/10.