THE ART OF BEING UNFORGETTABLE: Inside Juliette Longuet’s YSL Beauté Dinner in Paris

Leopard print, candlelight and a room full of remarkable women. At Chez Camondo, Juliette Longuet hosted the sixth edition of Power Ladies, an intimate evening celebrating Babycat and Yves Saint Laurent Beauté’s Le Vestiaire des Parfums.

There are dress codes, and then there are declarations of intent. Babycat belongs firmly to the second category.

A few days after Paris Fashion Week, Juliette Longuet invited a circle of women to Chez Camondo in Paris for Power Ladies, Acte 6, an intimate dinner dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent Beauté’s Le Vestiaire des Parfums. The dress code took its name from Babycat, the collection’s provocative interpretation of Saint Laurent’s beloved leopard print.

It was a fitting choice. After all, Yves Saint Laurent never designed for women who wanted to disappear into a room.

And this was an evening devoted to women who had little intention of doing so.

THE WOMAN BEHIND POWER LADIES

Juliette Longuet knows something about moving between worlds.

A French fashion entrepreneur, television presenter and luxury events curator, she has built a career spanning fashion, media and the art of bringing people together. Having established her own fashion label in New York and worked in television, she now creates bespoke gatherings through Juliette Longuet Events, connecting the worlds of luxury, business and culture.

Power Ladies feels like a natural extension of that experience. The dinner series places women at the centre of the conversation, celebrating individuality, ambition and the many ways personal style can become a form of expression.

For its sixth edition, Longuet turned to the universe of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, a house whose founder understood the relationship between personal style and independence perhaps better than anyone.

Yulia Harfouch, Editor-in-Chief of HD Fashion & Lifestyle TV, joined Longuet for the evening at Chez Camondo.

The setting offered its own kind of introduction. A long table dressed in white, arrangements of autumnal flowers, the soft flicker of candles and small bottles of fragrance waiting to be discovered. There was something pleasingly understated about presenting such a bold perfume in so intimate a setting.

The evening brought together two ideas that have always belonged in the Saint Laurent universe: the freedom to define one's own style and the pleasure of making an impression without saying a word.

WHY BABYCAT?

Leopard print has always been a complicated proposition. Too much for some, never quite enough for others. In the hands of Yves Saint Laurent, however, it became something else entirely: a symbol of a woman who dressed for herself.

The couturier first introduced the motif into his collections in 1968, on a silk dress. It would return again and again, finding its way onto eveningwear, blouses and accessories, acquiring the status of a house signature along the way.

Babycat, the fragrance, takes this history and gives it an unexpected twist.

Created by master perfumer Dominique Ropion, it centres on Bourbon vanilla sourced from Madagascar. But anyone expecting a conventionally sweet vanilla is in for a surprise. Ropion draws out the ingredient’s naturally leathery character, surrounding it with a suede accord, spices and resins.

The result is rich and warm, with a darker, more instinctive edge. There is sweetness, certainly, but it refuses to behave like a dessert.

Perhaps that is what makes Babycat such an apt choice for a Power Ladies dinner. Like the print that inspired it, the fragrance is built on contrasts. Sensuality and strength. Familiarity and surprise. The pleasure of being noticed, without the need to ask for attention.

A WARDROBE YOU CANNOT SEE

Of course, Babycat is only one chapter in a much larger story.

Le Vestiaire des Parfums is Yves Saint Laurent Beauté’s interpretation of the designer’s creative universe, a collection in which iconic garments, materials and even Parisian addresses become fragrances.

The idea is irresistible in its simplicity. What if a wardrobe could be experienced without ever opening its doors?

Take Tuxedo. Inspired by Le Smoking, the revolutionary evening suit Saint Laurent introduced for women in 1966, the fragrance translates sharp tailoring into the earthy depth of patchouli, brightened by black pepper and coriander. It is the olfactory equivalent of a perfectly cut jacket, with just enough tension beneath its impeccable surface.

Blouse takes a different approach. The transparent blouse Saint Laurent introduced in 1968 was an act of fashion rebellion disguised as something delicate. Its fragrant counterpart, created by Quentin Bisch, centres on Damask rose, green accents and soft musk. Pretty, perhaps, but hardly innocent.

Then there is Muse, which looks beyond the clothes themselves to the moment before they exist. Perfumer Marie Salamagne imagined the scent of the designer’s sketches, creating an ink accord softened by iris and Bourbon vanilla. It is a fragrance inspired not by a finished masterpiece, but by the first line drawn on paper.

Together, the compositions reveal something essential about Saint Laurent. His clothes were never merely objects of beauty. They were expressions of personality, attitude and the freedom to become someone new.

A perfume, it turns out, can do much the same thing.

THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES

Back at Chez Camondo, the collection found a setting particularly suited to its philosophy.

The candlelit dinner offered a more intimate way of experiencing the Saint Laurent universe. Away from the spectacle of a fashion show, the fragrances invited a different kind of attention, encouraging a closer look at the relationship between scent, memory and personal identity.

For Yulia Harfouch, Editor-in-Chief of HD Fashion & Lifestyle TV, Power Ladies, Acte 6 offered an encounter with the Saint Laurent universe in a setting far removed from the runway. There were no models to watch from a front row, no silhouettes passing beneath the lights. Instead, there was a beautifully arranged table, the atmosphere of an evening conceived by Juliette Longuet and a collection of fragrances inspired by one of fashion’s most influential imaginations.

Saint Laurent once transformed the tuxedo, the transparent blouse and leopard print into expressions of a new femininity. Decades later, those same ideas continue to find new forms.

At Juliette Longuet’s Parisian dinner, they found one in perfume.

And perhaps that is the real appeal of Babycat. Long after the evening is over, a fragrance can still make an entrance.

Text: Editorial Team
Courtesy: Yves Saint Laurent Beauté