Chance findings in Collection 34

09.03.2018
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Every year Collection 34 reshuffles revamped editions and new perfumes around to bring the spirit of the original diptyque shop right up to date. Back then the shop was a very chic curiosity shop selling whimsical things! A wonderful opportunity to stumble across some unexpectedly tasteful objects.

The word “chance” is therefore key to this 2018 collection. Because this mindset means being open to possibilities; the crisscrossing of ideas and experimentation tells its own story of lucky chances.
All the creations in Collection 34 are the result of diptyque’s collaborations with artisan-artists who have come together unexpectedly and who have all felt that drive to create something lovely together. In their time, the founders of diptyque allowed themselves to be guided during their travels by their encounters with craftsmen and by the items they brought back to the shop at 34 boulevard Saint Germain.

Eau de toilette 34 boulevard Saint Germain appeared as an eau de parfum, with an olfactory harmony that had been re-tweaked for more intensity. It had been developed by a chemist and a perfumer who captured the smell of the eponymous shop with its opened perfume bottles, rugs, waxed furniture and all the weird and wonderful items that had passed through the boutique – also the fruit of time and chance – that could not be replicated.
Mixed clay candleholders with pigments thrown into the clay and handmade in Portugal, items designed by a master glassmaker in crackled glass and individually blown and the Fresnel candleholder (inspired by the scientist’s lens) designed by Jean-Marc Gady studios and reproduced by Waltersperger, the glassmaker.  Finally the candleholder designed by Massimo Borgna from oxidised mirrored glass – all these items play their own part in the random encounters that make each object in the series so unique. 
As for the Basile candleholder (which added a new twist to the diptyque motif of the Sixties when a laser cutting technique was applied to a brass cylinder) the infusion of unpredictability comes from the flickering flames of the candle…

Chance eventually becomes an opportunity for discovery… Hence the scent diffusing bird with its cheeky profile made from porous metal that diffuses scent into the air from long stilts (legs) plunging deep inside its bottle… and a Lavender Heart with long strands and inward folding floral spikes enclosed by stems tied together with velvet ribbon – Philippe Franc’s way of reviving a Provencal tradition! And what about paper – part of the diptych story as the founding friends were graphic designers and illustrators – with this collection of notebooks and letterheads adorned in opulent, breezy patterns.
And how about the perfumed matches in matchboxes featuring reproductions of original diptyque patterns! And snuffers made from Portuguese porcelain! And Kimonanthe, Ôpoponé, Eau Mage and Benjoin Bohème, the exclusive eaux de parfum that are part of Collection 34! How awesome is that?

A sweep of encounters, a dance of talents. Techniques telling their own tale of happy accidents abound here. As luck would have it, chance here is not the result of coincidence, since this bazaar 34 with its originality and finesse, and interplay of the unforeseen, is all part of a mindset peculiar to diptyque.