I’m a little late on catching up with the Givenchy perfume news and I just recently discovered Dahlia Noir. The ad campaign features one of my favourite models Mariacarla Boscono and photographers Mert & Marcus. I have no idea how this fragrance smells but the ad campaign and description make me very curious.

The video for Givenchy Dahlia Noir is quite dramatic and fun.

Riccardo Tisci gave an interview to vogue.com.au when Dahlia Noir launched.

Tell us about the notes, why did you choose rose and wood notes?
From my first meeting with François Demachy [the perfumer] when we were developing the Dahlia Noir range, I spoke to him about emotions and olfactory memories, not formulas. I remember the smell of my mother and sisters’ make-up, which had a distinctive powdery and rosy scent. This is why we constructed Dahlia Noir starting with a rosy note, enriched with iris and mimosa. We then added sophisticated woody notes such as sandalwood and patchouli to give the fragrance a contemporary edge.

What was the thought behind naming a fragrance after an odourless flower?
I thought about Dahlia Noir for a long time. I had been carrying this name inside me along with the totally imaginary flower it refers to, which doesn’t actually exist in nature. In my mind, it’s an abstract flower, very gothic, but also very whimsical and romantic. We conveyed this tension between force and fragility with rather potent top notes followed by a powdery softness.

The name Dahlia Noir evokes a very mysterious, almost dangerous femme fatale feeling. Was that your intention?
I wanted to materialise in the fragrance and its name a seductive black angel, a distinctive couture heroine emanating a dark softness, a fatal tenderness.

Does Dahlia Noir pay homage to James Ellroy’s novel The Black Dahlia?
The Black Dahlia, in the book by James Ellroy, is above all a heroine. In my opinion, this story is more about passion than crime. Passion pushes each individual to the summit, to excess. The culmination of emotions can then lead to acts committed under the influence of passion. (source: vogue.com.au via thefashionspot.com)

images: thefashionspot.com