Diptyque, The Haute Couture Candle

At the end of the avenue Saint-Germain, number 34, right by the restaurant Tour d’Argent, you can find the mythic Dyptique store. In 1960, it wasn’t the hotbed of luxury reserved for insiders that we know it as today; its three founders, architect Christiane Gautrot, painter Desmond Knox-Leet, and administrator/ stage designer Yves Coueslant originally sold fabrics and papers painted with their creations.

Little by little, with very reliable taste, the trio transformed the little boutique into a chic bazaar the likes of which had never before been seen in Paris, a “merchant of nothing” as Henri Gault and Christian Millau once called them. Back then it was the only place in town where you could discover unusual or simply beautiful objects, unearthed and customized by the trio throughout their travels to Ireland, Morocco, Mexico, India, and Italy. It was in this particular context that the Parisian trio teamed up with an English perfumer to create their first candles in 1963: Aubépine, Cannelle, and Thé were exotic scents that had never been seen before at the time. Fragrant, warm, and enrapturing, the candles, then cast into simple glasses purchased at the Hôtel de Ville, were a success right off the bat. Marked with a label composed of inimitable black letters on a white oval, their simple and discreet charm shines forth.

Throughout the years, the scents multiplied. But the creators, always in search of authenticity and beauty without ostentation, still only use natural primary materials like orange blossom or blackcurrant leaf. The brand makes a mix of waxes that go with each candle scent. In superior-quality paraffin, nontoxic for humans and the environment, this first class wax allows Diptyque’s candles to burn longer than any other. The brand has also been selling more than 16 eau de toilettes since 1968, “the most Proustian fragrances that exist”, once said Phillipe Starck, but it’s still their candles that drum up the most interest and devotion. In this temple of “Candle Haute Couture”, according to Marisa Berenson, the way you are invited to smell the scented wax is similar to a refined magic ritual.