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.

In an earlier review, I said that Diorella is the prettiest of the chypres I’ve encountered; I now correct it, Diorama is. I believe what might have assisted Dior in choosing the name, pun intended, was to showcase Roudnitska’s seminal work. Case in point, Diorella, Diorissimo, Le Parfum de Therese, Femme and Miss Dior (of which he has assisted I’ve read), are shown as layers as Diorama ages on skin. However in a review below, it was stated that this was not a good sell from Dior since “it smelled like Femme.” It perhaps being redundant. But then again, cementing his work under Dior’s name was another of Roudnitska’s genius; allowing further modifications on Femme. It’s with heaps of plum, melon, peach and strawberry underlain with a luminous gardenia and jasmine heart. To haze the sweetness, spices are on the fore and of course, the olden dusky feel rendered by animalics. All might sound heavy but it’s quite watery (in a good way) with “patisserie tonalities” which Elena V. mentioned in her blog. There’s also a green aspect to it, to which I can say revolves around vegetal and humid but very restrained. These may be renders from cumin and caraway. If you have the vintage, then good for you. If you only had a chance to try the newest one, then good for you as well! Not all houses bank on their classics to which I hoped with Nina Ricci, Balenciaga, Balmain and Lanvin.

I have a vintage sample of Diorama that has perhaps lost some of its top notes, but I forgive it. I think it's the heart and base notes that make this perfume the lady it is. As has often been noted, it's a flower and animal chypre, but what does that tell you if you've never smelled it? Does it tell you, for instance, that I was drinking unsweetened chai as I first smelled Diorama this morning, and that after attending to my wrist for a few minutes I took a sip of my drink and it tasted sweet? Does it tell you that while the perfume lasts, the sillage is stupendous, head-turning? Would you know that it smells like a fur stole and new leather gloves worn by a woman who would simply laugh at you if you told her "fur is murder"? I have no objection to the use of synthetics in perfumes. I know that they preserve natural resources,allow for a constancy that might otherwise be impossible, give us unprecedented notes etc...but what I cannot endure is ingredients that smell chemical. I loathe the biting, harsh, sinus-scouring edges so common to cheap perfumes, and now increasingly found in not-cheap perfumes. Diorama stands with you licking her chops at the prospect of trashing those little science projects. She's a gorgeous chimera, a force of nature.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE REWORKED DIORAMA That Roudnitska is a genius we already know. That you can buy his creations blindly is another truth. Obviously if you like his style which is elegant, refined, never too claimed, understated. This scents is a powerful mixture of every nuance can be found in a perfume: there are flowers, citrus notes, powder, fruits, leather. All so well balanced that one may wonder how this could be possible by a human. I really wonder if Monsieur Roudnitska was only human. Wearing Diorama you have the impression of wearing Diorella (the citrus opening notes), Dior Dior (the exploding of flowers and honeysuckle coming from behind), Diorling (the powder and leather notes). The fruits is the new note, the innovation in this wonderful scent from the range of the other Dior's masterpieces I have listed here. Among the whole of Dior's range this is certainly the best creation in my opinion, it sums up what Dior used to be, what elegance was, what a classy woman anchored to the past but with her eyes to the future should wear. Incredible scent, just in between past and future, perfect if you love the vintage feel and the modern trend. Unbelievable.

Diorama in 1948 was the second Dior's perfume. The use of spices is equivalent to the personal signature of this great perfumer. In my opinion, Diorama is very similar to the original formula of Rumeur (Lanvin), Inherit the bloodline of Femme (Rochas), Diorama is based on the base Prunol too. Some aesthetic concepts can transcend time and space. Edmond Roudnitska's theories profoundly influenced my view of the art of perfumery. Cloves, cumin, cinnamon, a variety of spicy and hot spices are mixed into the turbid civet liquid, and violet powder is sandwiched between the large and rich classical floral fragrance. The fruity aroma is sour, the jasmine and rose are sweet, and the dry oakmoss-woody base...the five parts interact with each other and resonate strongly. Diorama is rounded, fleshy, bright and warm, with distinct feminine qualities and saturated colors. Diorama later lived as Jubilation 25 (Amouage).

I got a bottle of vintage cologne for a great price on ebay and it was 2/3 full by the picture. When it got to me, the package was in USPS plastic baggy, uh oh. There remained about 1/3 in the bottle, the lid was loose. Grrr.... Anyway, the package and the room I opened it in smelled FANTASTIC. Slightly aftershave-ish, I believe that would be the vetiver. But man, what an addictive scent. I got a big bottle of the new Diorama edt again on ebay, it was a tester and I have no reason to doubt the authenticity. What a disappointment. This one is primarily jasmine on me. There is just a hint of the vetiver and other ingredients, barely, on drydown. Not even close. I don't even mind that it only lasts about 2 hours. Now I have no idea how to rate this scent!

Smell some old Diorama if you can. It's not citrus laden, so keeps suprisingly well. I never quite know whether to revel in this lux of Diorama's dirty rich plum or the slightly lightly naughty melon notes of Diorella, or the skanky white florals and fruits of Dior-Dior. They are all so perfect in their way, but please do yourself a favour and get some good vintage bottles while you can. All of them little masterpieces of perfumery.

I have the vintage extrait pure perfume and a minusculous amount - literally a dab of the tiny glass topper - is sufficient to render a full bodied scent to emerge, unfold itself from its petite, ovoid, almost tear like glass cage. Diorama is a beauty - thick, rich, warm animalic base with both civet and castoreum, with the powderiness of lilac giving a subtle nod towards l’Heure Bleu - but the top is different with its heady white florals and plum, which is the most predominant note. Diorama is very smooth, velvety and so well blended, a beautiful example of perfumes of this era. Its so rich and smooth without ever becoming overpowering. It makes me think of Marlene Dietrich.

This is simple: to much with to much with to much, I tried it for n+1 dates in different occasions, season and climate, for me isn't good anywhere anytime. That tuberose isn't controlled and it's killing you, probably for the women of 1940, housewife, girly and "feminin", "fragile" and simple mimosa was good for me....no. If you are a powerful, distinctive woman, this will never stay on you. I received an expensive vintage perfume bottle as a gift still full, so I really tried to make it work because was vintage and I was curious...no. I regifted it to a collector.

It’s not easy to get your hands on vintage Diorama, so how can you decide if it is worth the effort and expense? Perhaps some comparisons will help. The resemblance between vintage Femme and vintage Diorama is evident, relying on their shared, lovely dried spiced peach notes. Comparing vintage, pre-reformulation Femme PDT to vintage Diorama parfum, Femme is definitely sweeter and fruitier, with Diorama feeling greener with a drop of galbanum on the top. Over time, their animalic profiles also seem different. Femme reveals the slightly sharpish tang of civet beneath the fruit, while Diorama has velvety musks, similar to those in vintage Miss Dior. Diorama's greater spiciness is also notable, with noticeable cinnamon and cardamom, making it more aromatic than Femme. In the end, Diorama might be more complex than Femme, making Femme seem a wee bit overripe and blowsy in its overt fruitiness, but, really, both are lovely. There is no cumin to be found in either vintage Diorama or vintage Femme, but oddly enough, the reformulated Les Creations Diorama does feature cumin (as does the reformulated Femme). In fact, there is a huge photo of cumin seeds on the Dior webpage to celebrate this specific aspect of Les Creations Diorama. I cannot begin to explain why perfumers think smooth, peachy, buttery chypres such as Diorama and Femme should be reformulated by adding, of all things, cumin. (And I say this even though I like cumin as a perfume note, but it is a controversial and somewhat difficult note, very different in intention from the original nature of these perfumes.) Also strange to tell, the newer Les Creations Diorama seems to remind many people of Diorella, not vintage Diorama. I have not tried this version, but Turin and Sanchez affirm: “The present day Diorama bears no relation whatsoever to the stupendous 1949 original, a sunny orange-peel version of Mitsouko, and is instead related to Diorella and Parfum de Therese, only less good." I adore vintage Diorella, and I can't begin to imagine how Diorama could morph into Diorella. So how about vintage Diorama's relationship to Mitsouko, the grandmother of all peachy spicy chypres? Again, the similarity is there. Tested side-by-side in the vintage parfum formulations, Mitsouko has much more incense, patchouli, and amber than Diorama and feels more oriental, making Diorama feel fresher and more chypre-like in contrast. I have to confess that you probably don't need to hunt down vintage Diorama, if you are happy wearing your vintage Mitsouko. Matched against the great Grand Dame of Fruity Chypres, Diorama can feel a little bit like a beautiful Mitsouko Lite (not that there's anything wrong with that!) but when it comes to vintage Dior perfumes, resistence is futile for me.

I find it tiresome when people complain about Luca Turin and The Guide. The complaints seem full of straw men to me: who are the people in danger of slavishly following The Guide and not trusting their own tastes? And so what if they did, and they never learned to appreciate Creed? This does not make my list of things to get churlish about. But then my parents started me on Pauline Kael as a young child, and now I am grateful to them. It is true that sometimes Luca Turin seems jaded, like the only thing that will grab his attention these days is the latest from some experimental house with a witty new iceberg lettuce and shorted-out motherboard accord. For me, this just adds to the fun. However I do wonder if he steered us a bit wrong on this and Parfum de Therese. I was lucky enough to find a half a vintage bottle of this in a thrift store. The top notes were messed up, but as soon as I put it on, I perceived the relationship between Diorella, PDT and this, and felt very pleased with myself. I am not advanced enough to understand why this supposedly sucks and PDT is not a masterpiece. I actually wear this once in a while now, just because I want to, not as an experiment. And my boyfriend likes it too, he says he wishes they still made things more like this. So there.

This is a review for the vintage parfum. This is a muskier version of Femme by Rochas. Perhaps too musky for some people but not for me. This is like a beautiful woman who is a shape shifter and can turn into animal. I am an animal. This scent starts off with the fruitiness that I like in openings less citrus and more peach and plum. Sweet, soft, but ripe and delicious. It's seductive and fragrant like fruit bowls on a table in a garden with white flowers all about. The gardenia, jasmine tuberose and violet are all detectable. This is a very floral perfume. However the day turns into night and it becomes an evening cologne with animalic scents of beaver and civet. Yes my purchase is very old and comes with that great bottle and even though it has turned a bit it still smells like something from out of this world, and out of my own world. It smells very expensive very elegant. A tad Oriental and spicy, and definitely mature and womanly but so sexy. I find that the muskiness makes it warm and so this is the Dior frag I will wear as the winter enters it's final phase before I can start wearing florals again.

This is for the vintage pure parfum I got.. anything for science! This opens with a strong note of bergamot and evolves into dirty civet, plum and strong powdery violet and oakmoss - most certainly not a white floral as most of us know it - yet. A warming, pleasant drydown of tuberose and civet, together with the oakmoss that dominates this scent through the whole experience. Intoxicating, animalic, heady. This reminds me slightly of Cartier Panthere and the beautiful drydown of vintage Giorgio Beverly Hills. In the end, this is a creamy tuberose with civet. Becomes richer after time and is very complex, a true pleasure for the senses. Anyone would appreciate this one way or another, since it's so well blended. It's an honor to own it. The sillage is greater than anything. The modern Diorama (EDT) is a warm beautiful white floral with soft spices, its scent has nothing in common with the vintage.

i tried it once at an airport and i've been obsessing about it ever since! since all the bottles look the same (for this collection) and i didn't remember the name so it took me a lot of time sampling dioressence, diorissimo - becasuse they're more popular and the SA keep showing those to me - before i chanced upon Diorama. oh what an absolutely stunning fragrance it is!! smells like deliciously youthful skin. extremely sensuous, like dirty sex but sweeter. i keep smelling my wrists all day. at first it's like cumin - which is a spice i use a lot in cooking so i was a bit disappointed but then the skin smell come out. and then it becomes erotically dirty and sweet, like you want to sink your teeth into flesh. and yet it smells elegant, very feminine, strongly feminine, not for a dainty girl but a confident woman. a must try for any chypre lover.

In my experience, Vintage Diorama, which I own in EDT and parfum, is a slightly sweeter version of vintage Miss Dior. In other words, it's wonderful with its Miss Dior structure and hints of the plummy Femme Rochas. However, the reformulated version is more like a salty/ citrus-y combination of vintage Diorella and Frederic Malle's Parfum de Theresse where the original Diorama scent only shows its beautiful self in the far dry down, just as it starts to fade out. I have to say that I really like this reformulated Diorama for the scent that it is, but it's not really Diorama as it was originally intended. If you want to experience something closer to what the original Diorama was, try Molinard's Chypre de Orient for which I've also written a review.

I got a sample of this thinking I'd get a modern vanilla spice cake that I smelled a while back in Harrods. Nope, I quickly realized this is the old school version! Or at least I think it is, tbc. Strong jasmine, lots of sweatiness civet or cumin more civet, very vintage vibes with lots going on, many many florals, plum and peach, a little skanky if you know what I mean. But all in a way that you can tell it's still super high quality. That said I could never pull this off. Interesting though! ** 200 samples for swap - check my customs, get in touch, UK only! **