L’Oréal Group-owned Yves Saint Laurent has launched Libre — a new ‘gender-bending’ fragrance for women — with singer songwriter Dua Lipa as the face of the scent.
It is now available in travel retail Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Americas, and will be featured in major promotional events later in the year. It will be rolled out in Asia Pacific travel retail on 1 November.
According to the brand, Libre offers “a couture twist on a classically masculine style” and plays on the tension between masculine and feminine olfactory structures. The scent offers sparkling neroli and juicy mandarin top notes, orange blossom and diva lavender heart notes, and sustainably sourced vanilla bourbon base notes from Madagascar.
The new scent was designed by IFF Master perfumers Anne Filipo and Carlos Banaïm. The duo represents two sides of the same coin, reversing traditionally masculine and feminine accords to create Libre. The fragrance pays homage to Yves Saint Laurent’s classic ‘fougère’ style, which saw the designer famously remake the smoking tuxedo for women.
Filipo is based in Paris, and honed her nose at the ISIPCA School of Perfumery in Versailles. Banaïm is based in New York and is a nine-time Fragrance Foundation Award winner. He also received the Perfumer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
The bottle was designed by Suzanne Dalton, who reinterpreted the Yves Saint Laurent logo for Libre. Here, the familiar ‘YSL’ Cassandra logo is flipped to its side, giving the bottle an unusual yet alluring shape. The flacon reflects the same gender-bending duality of the scent, and also references the sleek tailoring of an Yves Saint Laurent suit. It also features a gold chain on the neck, and a slanted black cap.
The new campaign features singer songwriter Dua Lipa, who was recently named as a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine. Known for hits such as ‘New Rules’ and ‘One Kiss’, Dua Lipa was nominated for five different categories during the 2018 Brit awards. She won the awards for ‘Best British Female Solo Artist’ and ‘Best Breakthrough Act’ to name a few.
The campaign film was directed by filmmaker Nabil Elderkin who said: “Dua Lipa is an inspired choice to embody this boldly defiant woman.” He added, “Young and edgy, with an uncompromising sense of self and a willingness to speak her truth, she is exactly the sort of ambassador who can exude a perfectly calibrated blend of liberated sensuality and inner strength that embodies the no compromise, write-your-own-rules YSL woman.”
