Balenciaga Introduces Perfume Collection and Fragrance Store

PARIS — Balenciaga is delving deep back into fragrance with the launch of a high perfume collection and a boutique to house it.

This marks the first scent-related project for the brand after Kering brought Balenciaga’s fragrance business back in house in 2023. It also bridges the past and future. 

“Since the very beginning, Balenciaga was not only a couture house, but also a fragrance house. And together with Kering Beauté, we wanted to revive and honor this essential part of our patrimony,” said Gianfranco Gianangeli, chief executive officer of Balenciaga. “For almost three years we worked on a reverential reconstruction of Le Dix, and from there have written a new chapter in Balenciaga’s olfactive history creating an innovative collection of 10 perfumes that has a fusion and tension going beyond traditional olfactive perfumery.”

He was referring to the house’s debut fragrance, which took its name from Balenciaga’s historic location. Its archivists searched for 15 years to locate a perfume bottle dating from 1947 that contained Le Dix.

“Le Dix’s original formula, like the bottle and packaging, was analyzed and recreated,” explained Raffaella Cornaggia, CEO of Kering Beauté. “It brought an authentic and emotionally engaging dimension to the project.”

The new fragrances come in flacons echoing Le Dix’s bottle. There is a glass globular cap, hand-tied ribbon and aged patina. Outer packaging harks to yesteryear, with similar logotype to that on Le Dix’s original box, but with the addition of Balenciaga’s signature industrial gray packaging of today.

“Those choices were designed to reawaken the maison’s olfactive soul with a modern take and restore its presence in the world of high perfumery,” Cornaggia said. “We worked hand-in-hand with Balenciaga to ensure that every detail reflects the house’s vision, from the collection of fragrances — the very heart of the project — to the bottles inspired by archival designs, to the signs of aging intentionally reproduced on the bottles and boxes, a metaphor for time’s transformative power.

“Through this collection, our goal is to extend Balenciaga’s creative universe to high perfumery, where storytelling, craftsmanship and innovation converge,” she continued. “It’s a strategic move for the house and for Kering Beauté to position Balenciaga as a distinctive voice in the luxury fragrance space.”

There is pride of place.

“We opened the Balenciaga fragrance store at 10 Avenue George V, the same historic address where in 2021 we revived our couture heritage by reestablishing our couture salons, ateliers and where our couture collections are presented, and in 2022, where the couture store was created,” Gianangeli said.

On Wednesday, the line of 10 fragrances debuts in the same location Le Dix was presented more than 75 years ago.

The boutique borrows codes of the Balenciaga couture store next door, which includes the house’s raw architecture concept that repurposes structural components already there. The color gray — Balenciaga’s signature hue — infuses the interior. Velvet, suede and leather are juxtaposed with concrete, plaster and metal. Raw steel reaches upward from the floor to hold upholstered cabinets. Chairs are made of aluminum and leather.

The collection of fragrances is being sold in select Balenciaga stores in Europe and North America, and on balenciaga.com. There will be a progressive rollout later.

Perfume names are playful. Alongside Le Dix, there is No Comment, Getaria, Twenty Four Seven, To Be Confirmed, Muscara, 100%, Extra, Cristóbal and Incense Perfumum.

The perfumes range in color from clear to those with smokey tints then culminate in an opaque juice. Each fragrance is meant to combine heritage and high tech in its olfactive signature.

Le Dix, for instance, includes iris absolute with isolated iris aldehydes, as well as violet leaf absolute and incense essential oils. Cristóbal contains oud Assafi essence, with patchouli and oak moss notes. And Muscara has ambrette seed absolute with an iris accord.

“Each fragrance was developed with a specific vision, translating Balenciaga’s design codes into scent: bold and charged with emotion and beauty,” Cornaggia said.

In store, the fragrances stand on 18th- and 19th-century-style mirrored centerpieces. 

The fragrance store has a complimentary personalized engraving service on site, as well as a selection of objects and accessories, such as a chrome-finished travel case and tiny flacon-shaped charms, all inspired by Le Dix.

“By fusing tradition with contemporary vision, cutting-edge craftsmanship and sustainable practices, we’ve created a collection that doesn’t just reference the past but reclaims it, making it a living part of Balenciaga’s creative DNA once again,” Cornaggia said.

There’s another pairing, as well.

“September 10, 2025, marks a proud and symbolic moment when the house’s fragrance and couture heritage now coexist,” Gianangeli said. “Our past, present and future live in harmony at our Parisian birthplace, where the fragrance store and couture store are both located side by side.

“Fragrance and innovative design are deeply rooted in the house’s DNA. Cristóbal Balenciaga, known for his technical mastery and groundbreaking silhouettes, launched his first fragrance Le Dix in 1947, 30 years after founding his couture house and continued creating fragrances along with his couture collections until closing the house.”

That was in May 1968.

“We wanted to revive this rich heritage and create not only one fragrance, but a collection of 10 parfums that embodies the radical approach to creation that has existed since the house’s founder and that continues today in our collections from ready-to-wear, couture and now fragrance,” Gianangeli said.

The perfumes come in various formats. A 100-ml. eau de parfum sells for 260 euros. There is a Le Dix set of miniatures — 10-ml. flacons that look like they’re sitting on a fashion show bench — priced at 320 euros, and a discovery box of 10 2-ml. bottles for 70 euros. 

The 15-ml. travel spray goes for 55 euros, while the 200-ml. refill bottle is 220 euros. That can be used for the perfume flacon and travel edition.

“Sustainability also played a central role and was embedded into every stage of [the fragrances’] development,” Cornaggia said. “The bottles are infinitely refillable and housed in recyclable cardboard packaging sourced responsibly.”

Single-use plastics were eschewed for the collection’s packaging. Alcohol used in the perfume formula comes from organic wheat.

Gianangeli recognizes the importance of beauty.

“The beauty industry is vast and one of the fastest-growing industries,” he said. “The expansion into perfume opens new channels for business.

“Balenciaga’s reach will significantly enlargen by offering new product categories for our existing clients. Meanwhile, this diversification will attract more customers,” Gianangeli continued. “We wanted to create a collection of 10 highly individualistic fragrances that embody different attitudes that would have global appeal. In the near future, there will be further developments in this category. The potential is limitless.”