By Phebe Wahl
The flame for haute home and fragrance brand Diptyque burns brighter than ever thanks to a sparkling new boutique at The Wynn.
The flame for haute home and fragrance brand Diptyque burns brighter than ever thanks to a sparkling new boutique at Wynn. THE DIPTYQUE HISTORY IS, AT ITS HEART, TRÈS Parisien—conceptualized by a painter, a theater director and a set designer producing printed fabrics and wallpaper in the early 1960s. Their store, on 34 Boulevard Saint Germain, became a chic bazaar, carrying unique items the trio brought back from their travels. Diptyque Paris has become an international phenomenon, creating scents that sell internationally from Doha to Tokyo. And though the brand’s president of the Americas, Julien Gommichon, says that Diptyque has been searching for years for an opportunity to open in Las Vegas, it would be difficult to claim that Diptyque and Las Vegas are brands that fall into natural alignment. The opportunity to blend design philosophies between the City of Lights and that other city of lights came into perfect view with the opening of Wynn Plaza Shops. To celebrate the brand’s 21st boutique location in the United States, Diptyque blended elements of midcentury modern Las Vegas design with its Saint Germain original concept. The space was designed by Alexandre Roussard, Diptyque’s director of store design and visual merchandising, and captures the spirit of the original, with an open facade and glass, brass and oak accents. The interior is awash in neutral tones and nods to Las Vegas’ rich midcentury history with vintage lounge chairs and a glass coffee table. But the focal point of the boutique hails from its textile origins. An art installation by Rio-born French textile and craft artist Janaina Milheiro “comprises thousands of hand-cut yellow feathers and iridescent acrylic sheets, which serve as a contemporary interpretation of Diptyque’s olfactory landscapes and pays tribute to Las Vegas’ legendary
“The starting point of a fragrance could be an ingredient with a special story.” myriam badault
entertainment,” says Myriam Badault, Diptyque’s director of marketing and product creation. It is the olfactory landscape that has always been so central to the brand. “The starting point of each fragrance is an olfactive sensation,” Badault says. “It could be a moment that I have truly experienced, such as the smell of the fig tree on a Mediterranean shore in Philosykos,” she says, “or an ingredient that I discover with a very special story.” The idea of a fragrance narrative was the basis of the brand’s first eau de toilette, L’eau, the first gender-nonspecific fragrance, inspired by a 16th-century potpourri recipe of a clove-studded pomander. A full range of products would follow, eaux de toilette, eaux de parfum, home fragrances, body care and seasonal and limited-edition launches. Much like its boutique, its fragrances were evocations of faraway places—the Mediterranean and the Middle East, a hot Greek summer, the scent of a garden at a water’s edge. Even contemporary creations follow this philosophy: Tam Dao, created in 2003 by perfumer Daniel Moliere, evokes the Goa sandalwood-laced air of founder Yves Coueslant’s childhood in Indochina when his family would leave the muggy heat of the city for the mountains of Tam Dao. Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin created Do Son, redolent of tuberose and Turkish rose, to tell the story of Coueslant’s time in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam. To celebrate its 50th anniversary last year, Diptyque developed two scents, recalling its history of artistic collaboration, travel and the fun of the ’60s. Olivier Pescheux developed the patchouli-scented Tempo, which combines woody extracts from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi with violet leaf in a nod to the summer of love. “It is a story that sparks my imagination and invites me on a journey through Indonesian traditions and rituals,” Badault says. Fleur de Peau (“the scent of skin”) is, as you might imagine, a seductive fragrance, which combines ambrette seeds and pink peppercorns in a musky tribute to the love between Greek gods Psyche and Eros. The offerings at Diptyque’s Wynn Las Vegas store come full circle, in a way, telling the story of Diptyque itself through two new home fragrances, part of the Materials That Stir Emotions collection. “The collection is a collaboration with legendary French design house Pierre Frey, and nods to Diptyque’s beginnings at our original 34 Boulevard Saint Germain boutique, and to one of the maison’s founders, Christiane Gautrot, who was originally a textile designer,” Badault says. Featuring five limited-edition candle duo coffrets decorated in Pierre Frey prints that correspond to the candles they hold, they are the first new candles to be added to Diptyque’s permanent collection since 2016. To toast the opening, the Wynn boutique is carrying a limited run of the Paris City Candle (think narcotic florals and chypre accord), otherwise exclusively available at the brand’s Paris boutiques. You might say that its new Las Vegas store fulfills much the same purpose as the original—a chic collection of wonderful things from far away. And although Diptyque has yet to formulate a Las Vegas city candle, if it did, Badault says, it would be “an overdose of light and colors—fizzing and sparkling!”