For Francis Kurkdjian, Perfume Creation Director at Dior, the world of men’s fragrance needs a little more sex appeal. But how do you inject that energy into the globe’s #1 best-selling men’s fragrance, Dior Sauvage? Simple: unleash the lingering intensity of the iconic scent and amplify the raw, magnetic notes in a new iteration titled Sauvage Extrait to awaken the untamed instinct within us all

KEV PONCE: You mentioned Sauvage Extrait is a journey. It seems that journey is informed by the storytelling of the scent with the imagery and emotions tied to the notes. What was your starting point for that journey in creating this ultimate iteration of Sauvage?

FRANCIS KURKDJIAN: The emotions were about how [one] can be more intense, deeper, and extreme. With Sauvage, we have the visuals [with Johnny Depp] that show what is extreme. The landscapes are beautiful and express how we can push the boundaries of Sauvage to a point where we [detail] the quintessence of what a perfume is about—in power, in intensity, and density, which was the big picture. In smelling Sauvage Extrait, it’s about the feeling of yin and yang, in a kind of chiaroscuro way.

KP: Seems like you like uncharted territory—that’s how you create your own journey, for both you and the wearer. 

FK: Totally. I don’t like when we have benchmarks [to abide by]. We don’t look at the competition. When people ask me who the wearer of the perfume is, I don’t know because we didn’t conduct any tests. Right now, this perfume has only been tested by less than ten people–[including] three people in my studio, the president of Dior, and the people who have experienced the scent while it was in development, which is the beauty of it. It has to be good enough, so it plays its own role and does the job by itself. 

KP: Because of that intimate nature to your creation process, do you feel like you’re a bit of a risk taker when you release new scents out to the world?

FK: You have to be. Sometimes you don’t succeed. We do everything we can to make it a success, but the market is literally stuffed with perfumes. When you smell them and look at them, you can see there is no risk—at all. At some point, you have to [be able to] take some risks, and sometimes we fail. I hope not with this one, but when you fail, it’s good to learn why. So the question is now: what is the risk? Is the market ready to go one step up?

KP: And that’s where Sauvage Extrait comes in, which is now the highest concentration of the scent. For me, the step above is the inclusion of everyone’s favorite: oud. Why do you think now was the right time to include this in the formula?

FK: As a perfumer, it’s hard to explain why I use raw materials. I use them because I need them. I needed a raw material that was able to work with volatility. In the wood family, sandalwood is very soft, long-lasting, and horizontal in a way. Oud is not only all that, but it’s also very vertical. Oud as a wood is an olfactive pyramid that is very interesting because from the way it starts and ends, it’s not even the same material. There is something very clean and very dirty at the same time. It smells like dirty hair and sweat; it can turn you on or off—yin and yang. To me, oud as a raw material goes from head to toe, in the [sense that] you get almost hypnotized. I believe that was the material needed to wrap my perfume with a sexy aura that pushes Sauvage to something very dirty, in a mainstream way, of course.

KP: I think the mainstream market needs a bit of that!

FK: I think this is also what masculinity is about. I think nowadays you have, on one part, fluidity, but on the other side, there is still masculinity; I think Sauvage Extrait can be seen as a feeling of masculinity, and how [it is] anchored in the soul of the ‘70s and ‘80s. [Now], there is a comeback to something that is kind of hippie chic—this clean-cut yet a bit edgy, kinky [vibe]. It’s a ballsy Sauvage.

KP: Do you think that idea of a man, where there’s duality in being clean-cut and dirty, makes a Sauvage man?

FK: In a way, yes. [For the Sauvage Extrait man], there is something that doesn’t feel aligned in a [rigid] or coherent way. There is a step on the side, and to me, Sauvage, so far, always has been on the clinical side. I think this is the first time we’ve tried to play and bring that very sexy feline-esque [energy], so you get something that is very strong, and yet, there is something you want to cuddle with.

This story appears in the pages of VMAN 57: now available for purchase!

Photography Corey Olsen

Set Designer Jill Nicholls

Photo Assistant Duncan Mellor

Set Design Assistant Jim Connors

Production Coordinator Thomas McCaffery & Hailee Hammond

Production Assistant Juliet Lloyd

Director of Editorial Film Mynxii White

Location AgX Brooklyn