WIN: Balenciaga Florabotanica

Art of You

Oct 23

Hello Darlings,

Never thought I would ever cheat on my beloved Chanel with Balenciaga! Since my 16th birthday, I have been a loyal Chanel spritzer. Together with diamond studs, years ago my parents gifted me my first bottle of Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle perfume. Since that birthday, I have loved Chanel in a way that no other scent could challenge. Well, that is until recently discovering the beauty of Balenciaga. My first new love was L'Essence and now it's Balenciaga's highly-anticipated Florabotanica.

"There is a real duality in Balenciaga, between classicism and experimentation," said Balenciaga's creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière. "For this new fragrance, I wanted to explore this paradox between the pure and the enigmatic further. A few years ago, I wanted to explore this "floral collection". The dresses were covered with flowers, but these flowers were neither charming nor romantic. They structured the whole silhouette. I wanted the flowers in this perfume to express the same idea."

Balenciaga perfume is a balance between a classic scent, and one that is unusual and unique. True to Ghesquière's Spring/Summer 2008 collection of floral ensembles that inspired the fragrance — and the designs actress Kristen Stewart wears in their ad campaign — Florabotanica is unlike anything else! I adore the unusual yet sophisticated scent, how the graphic black and white stripes of the bottle echo a signature dear to Christobal Balenciaga, and also the visions of extremely contemporary cuts of which Nicolas Ghesquière is fond in his designs.