Yahoo Lifestyle The History of the Hero: the enduring popularity of Dior Sauvage
Being able to claim the title of world's best-selling men's fragrance is something many brands aspire to but few achieve. It's a position currently held by Dior Sauvage – and has been for the past four years.
When Sauvage first launched in 2015, it was Dior's first men's cologne in almost a decade. It came on the scene with a splash, with a bold ad campaign featuring Johnny Depp – an ambassador role he still holds today – rolled out across TV and department store installations. The modern iteration is not to be confused with Eau Sauvage, Dior's first-ever men's scent, which launched in 1966. Described as "the perfect expression of French elegance", it's still available to buy, housed in a refined, retro-feel flacon that is reflective of its heritage.
The latter-day Sauvage, in its signature midnight-blue packaging, captures a more contemporary essence of masculinity. In the past nine years, its rise in popularity has been nothing short of phenomenal, with the brand managing to strike that lucrative balance; a luxury product with mass market appeal. In 2021 Dior announced that one bottle was sold every three seconds. In that same year it became the best-selling fragrance in the world, spanning both the men's and women's categories. Today, Sauvage has a monthly Google search volume of more than 350,000 related queries. There's an eau de toilette, an elixir, an eau de parfum and a parfum, as well as an entire category of Sauvage grooming products, featuring everything from a cactus-infused serum to a black charcoal cleanser, as well as a deodorant, a shower gel and after-shave balm.
This month marks the launch of the scent's latest iteration: Sauvage Eau Forte – the first alcohol-free version of the fragrance, and the first created by the renowned perfumer Francis Kurkdjian since he took the helm of Dior Parfums in October 2021. It retains that powerful intensity that Sauvage is known and loved for, but with added freshness borne from an innovative water-based formulation – an industry-first (second only to the women's J'Adore range, which launched an alcohol-free version last year).
"Switching from alcohol to water is a big change – it's a big shift," Kurkdjian tells Harper's Bazaar, adding that he wouldn't have thought it possible a decade ago. "Ten years ago, water-based perfumes were dedicated to babies!" He describes the way that the scent hits your nose as being "much smoother" when compared to the traditional alcohol-based alternative. "It brings something seemingly impossible – that lush effect," he explains. "Because lush is a feeling, lush is not a smell." Another key difference lies in the application; "it leaves a wetness on the skin", which can take some getting used to, he admits. Generally speaking, it's a far trickier formulation process (and there are technical limits, meaning it can't be applied to every fragrance, so it's not necessarily set to become an industry standard) but in "saturating" the ingredients, it results in a stronger, more persistent fragrance, rather than one that fades after a few minutes. Removing alcohol also has environmental benefits as well as being kinder on sensitive skin.
For now, Dior is the only leading house offering this particular type of alcohol-free composition, but Francis is encouraging of other brands following suit. "Let's see if we create a trend or not," he says, confidently. "When you are alone, you are alone. But competition creates a market – you cannot be alone for very long. Imitation can be key for success."
While the original Sauvage scents are more citrus-focused, Eau Forte includes a flight of fresh and aromatic spices. "The challenge here was to be as fresh as an eau de toilette and as intense as a parfum," explains Kurkdjian. "The challenge was to combine the two of them; the water brings the freshness."
Kurkdjian is aware of the weight of responsibility that comes with adapting a multi-million dollar fragrance, but takes it in his stride. "I decided when I joined Dior not to feel any pressure, from anyone," he says. "If you start your day feeling the pressure, you have no more energy left for what you're meant to do. You can't work if you feel the pressure." Similarly, he's not worried about alienating the existing Sauvage customer with this exciting new approach. "The past customer already has four choices," he says, matter-of-factly. "My job is not to divert from this to that, my job is to open the door. When you're number one in the world, what is your horizon? When you're number two or number three, it's easier, because you chase the number one. When you're number one you can feel a bit alone on your pedestal. So the idea is to open up the landscape and stretch it, in a way... Let's see if we can move the market."
Whether adapting a signature hero product, like Sauvage, or working on a totally new one, Kurkdjian also understands the importance of looking back in order to move forward. He regularly enlists the advice of the dedicated Dior heritage team, which acts as a vital resource for anything archival, dating back to the birth of Christian Dior in 1905 – whether that's the history of a particular ingredient or design feature.
"The archives are important to me because it gives you a first step. It's a starting point," he says. "Sometimes you let it go, because it's not relevant anymore... But you have to deconstruct what has been done before. Anything that came before October 2021 for me belongs to the past of the house. All these previous [iterations of] Sauvage, are part of Dior's heritage. I have to take care of it, I have to nurture it, but also apply my own vision to it."
Dior Sauvage Eau Forte is out now.
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