I’ve learned, just recently, quite a bit about remote viewing from the CIA (and TikTok). I think I could be really good at this. And what a way to travel! Project Stargate’s psychic sightseers zipped back to Mars, 1 million B.C., to chat up the locals; Project Sun Streak participants zoomed underground “somewhere in the Middle East” to get a close look at the “fairly simple” lock system of the Ark of the Covenant.
I’ve also been reading Christian Dior’s endearing 1956 memoir, Dior by Dior. So, of course, I want to astral project back to 1947—specifically to the first floor of Christian Dior’s atelier, right beside the grand staircase and check out Colifichets, the micro-boutique curated by Dior’s longtime friend Carmen Colle. Colifichets was, according to Mr. Dior himself, “a cabinet of curiosities filled with treasures,” including his nascent beauty line—those divine perfumes and, eventually, his iconic lipsticks. “I believe Alphonse Daudet once wrote that he wanted his books to make him a ‘merchant of happiness.’ In my modest way I pursue the same aim,” wrote Mr. Dior, and I’m rocking what he’s rolling. Astral projection ‘experts' suggest beginning each session with a bit of meditation and some kind of object or aroma connected to your destination. I spritzed on Miss Dior Originale, the same green chypre that could be found on Colle’s counter, and closed my eyes.
Did I travel to new planes? Did I at least dream that I was? I don’t remember. Later that day, I was cutting down Greene Street, late for a meeting. Soho—thanks to daylight savings and doldrum weather—felt flat, grey, glum. And there it was—Dior Beauty SOHO, the brand’s first US beauty and fragrance flagship. All lit-up, warm and cute, tiny and charming as a snow globe. A Colifichets for the modern age, this well-edited jewel box has all of Dior Beauty’s most exquisite creations, all of the Fancy Stuff I’ve been wanting to try, all in one place. To be specific: I’d love to dip a tester spoon into a jar of L’Or de Vie, the biohacking crème containing longevity molecules extracted from Château d'Yquem’s golden grapes. Next, I want to swatch shade 8 from Peter Philips’s “haute-couture” Rouge Premier line. Mr. Dior launched his first lipstick—eight versions of red‚at Colifichets back in 1953. Since then, Dior Beauty has developed over 5000 different reds. According to more than a few makeup artists, Philips’s new Rouge Premier 8 is the best red of all time. Then I’ll sniff as many of the ultra-luxe La Collection Privée fragrances that my nose can handle: I’m especially curious about Carla Bruni’s beloved Ambre Nuit (she wears it to sleep) and Isabelle Adjani’s favorite, Oud Ispahan. As Mr. Dior wrote: “Fashion designers offer one of the last refuges of the marvelous. They are, in a way, the masters of dreams.”
