Diptyque, c’est chic!

Walls adorned with ceramic tiles dating from the start of the 20th century, windows decked out like a Victorian cabinet of curiosities, parquet flooring and, to the right, a dome in the form of a shell, like something out of a Botticelli painting. It’s not a big room, but the atmosphere you feel upon entering this Paris Diptyque store is striking. That’s unsurprising as we are at 5 avenue de l’Opera, in what was once the bathroom of Sarah Bernardt, one of France’s foremost actresses of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Classy and timeless, just like Diptyque itself come to think of it, this is the building where the luxury scented-candle maker chose to locate its headquarters in 2016, almost sixty years after the first Diptyque store opened at 34 Boulevard Saint Germain over on the Left Bank, where it all began when three friends, Christiane Gautrot, Desmond Knox Leet and Yves Coueslant, decided to go into business together in the textile trade. One was an interior designer, the others a painter and a stage designer. All three had the same mindset and artistic sensibility and, above all, the same freedom of thought, far from the received notions and codes of the time. In 1961 they created Diptyque, a luxury brand at once fresh, eclectic and select. A brand with bazaar-chic airs that, half a century later, became the number one scented candle company in the world.

Bazaar chic

Executive director for ten year now, Fabienne Maury [pictured above] explains, “At the start the three of them intended to sell furniture upholstery and, as the early days of the company were difficult, little by little they transformed their shop into a sort of concept store, before such a thing existed, with artisanal objects unearthed during their various travels, documents, ceramics, rugs and candles etc.”

The breakthrough came three years later when they hit upon the idea to perfume their candles. The initial fragrances, hawthorn, tea and cinnamon appeared on the shelves with the now-iconic logo, sparse and modern, its oval badge perfectly capturing a Roman centurion’s shield, its letters ‒ black on a white background, lightly asymmetric with a hand-written look which suggested they were dancing ‒ were subtly disorientating. The effect was, and still is, arresting, the allure immediate. Now armed with an inspired logo, the company set about expanding its range of candles, which today stands at around 50 and creating other lifestyle and beauty products. In 1968 they launched their first range of unisex fragrances – another bold move for the house which, faithful to its origins and the personality of its founders, came about without any specific target audience or strategy, driven only by instinct and desire.     

Neither ambition nor strategy

“Diptyque developed in accordance with the unfettered inspiration of its founders and the numerous artistic collaborators who assisted them: without a marketing strategy or an impetus to develop the brand in any way,” explained Mauny. “The only thing that motivated them was a total creative freedom nourished by their their travels, experiences and conversations.”

And it worked. As the product range expanded so too did the little touches that made the brand more exclusive in the eyes of the customer, such as packaging their wares in three colors of silk paper, folded origami-style, but above all it was a reputation for excellence and inventiveness upon which the Diptyque name was made. Little by little, they carved out a niche for themselves conforming to the vision of their founders, who hoped, according to Maury, “to create a universe that resembled themselves”: refined, exclusive and rich in shared inspiration.    

Measured steps

It wasn’t long before interested parties came knocking. The profile of Diptyque had risen and prominent players in the luxury goods world started to take notice, proposing corners in select boutiques from Hong Kong to New York City. Some proposals were turned down, others accepted and, like this, diligently and in measured steps, the internationalization of Diptyque began at the start of the 2010s, taking in Korea, Japan, Italy and the United States. Today, Diptyque has more than 60 boutiques in 45 countries. Wherever they open, the initial ambition remains the same: to create a warm and welcoming store and build a strong identity based on the local environment  - using bamboo in Tokyo, bricks in Chicago etc. The expansion strategy has been “very selective,” insists Maury with hand-picked locations designed to maximize visibility and decor that evokes a certain atmosphere, “not to reproduce a uniform look. When the first opportunity to launch an international presence presented itself, the brand was a jewel that was zealously protected and one which the founders never dreamed of taking global. Expansion was carried out very carefully, with constant worry about preserving the heritage, values and identity of Diptyque.” This prudence did not stop the brand from working to improve its products.  

A visual and olfactory universe

Year after year the array of captivating scents grows. Diptyque’s fragrances, which first appeared in candles, have gone on to be used in vaporizers, sprays and perfumes, which have broadened the company’s product range with, always, “a level of excellence that’s the same for the perfume as it is for the esthetic of the packaging its contained in.”

A couple of years ago Diptyque launched The 34 Collection, the name paying homage to the address of its first store on boulevard Saint-Germain. The collection contains a range of objects, stationary and textiles, allowing Diptyque to make its mark in the world of decoration. When, in 2005, the founders decided to sell up, they chose Manzanita Capital, an investment fund which had already acquired several niche products in the cosmetics sector. Two years later Fabienne Mauny, a major authority on the luxury goods market, formerly of YSL, took the reins. She remembers falling head over heels in love with the brand, whose “every scent tells a story that each label echos, where the visual reflects the olfactory.”

This “highly narrative” brand that unstintingly preserves its territory has maintained a level of creativity that’s allowed Diptyque to rewrite the rules of luxury and become a reference point worldwide.   

By Caroline Castets

(Translation, Simon McGeady)