The Balenciaga fragrance collection: honoring and reinventing the House's olfactive heritage
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September 10, 2025
The Balenciaga fragrance collection: honoring and reinventing the House's olfactive heritage
Launched in September 2025, Balenciaga’s high perfumery collection translates the House’s heritage into scent.
In 1947, Cristóbal Balenciaga, the Spanish couturier who founded his namesake House in 1917, created the first Balenciaga perfume, Le Dix. Nearly 80 years later, this historical fragrance has been reimagined as part of a collection of ten exclusive scents developed with Kering Beauté.
The mission of Kering Beauté
Since its launch in 2023, Kering Beauté aim has been to expand the universes of the Group’s Houses, on a territory which is both essential and natural to them, namely expressing their creative visions through beauty, with a focus on high perfumery. In order to convey the timeless DNA and hallmarks of Balenciaga, Kering Beauté worked closely with the House to strike a balance between its heritage and its contemporary expression.
Kering Beauté, deeply committed to sustainability, pays particular attention to the compositions of the fragrances by evaluating both their environmental performance and the sourcing risks associated with natural ingredients. The collection also features refillable bottles, recyclable cardboard packaging, and no single-use plastics in order to minimize its environmental impact.
Le Dix: the rebirth of a lost icon
As part of the work on the upcoming collection, a search led by the House’s archivists culminated in the rediscovery of a forgotten perfume bottle from 1947—the very first Le Dix. Its name, which means “The Ten” in French, refers to 10, Avenue George V, the historical address of the original Couture salon, ateliers, and perfume store in Paris, where the House’s Couture shows are still held today.
This original flacon was meticulously scanned and every detail, down to its globular glass cap and handtied ribbon, has been faithfully reproduced. The new Le Dix fragrance is encased in a box etched with the original Le Dix logotype, which has been patinaed using modern technology for an aged finish which evokes the scent’s history. The box is then wrapped in Balenciaga’s iconic industrial gray packaging—a juxtaposition which symbolizes a dialogue between heritage and modernity and serves as a tribute to the passage of time.
Like the bottle and packaging, Le Dix’s original formula was also analyzed and recreated: iris absolute, isolated iris aldehydes, violet leaf absolute and incense essential oils combine to form an elegant and graceful scent. The historical Le Dix perfume emerges reimagined and renewed, infused with the contemporary spirit of Balenciaga.
Balenciaga Couture, bottled
The collection is completed by nine other Parfums referencing Balenciaga’s heritage. Each fragrance—No Comment, Getaria, Twenty Four Seven, To Be Confirmed, Muscara, 100%, Extra, Cristóbal, and Incense Perfumum—contrasts ingredients in fusion and tension: exceptional raw materials emblematic of high perfumery and avant-garde ingredients obtained through cutting-edge extraction techniques. This unique collection, defined by contrasts and dualities, transposes the radical approach embedded in the House’s DNA into a new realm, redefining the centuries-old art of perfumery.
Created by the British artist Katerina Jebb, the digital campaign ties into Le Dix’s origins: in addition to scans of the collection’s flacons, Jebb’s visuals also draw on archival documents, including sketches of the original packaging, the bottle design, and images of Le Dix, underscoring a deep reverence for Balenciaga’s legacy.
