La Bague D'O

A journey by car to an unknown destination, the leisurely pleasure of ritualistic dressing, sacred submission, the candy wrapper shine of glossy fashion photographs, purple welts that take weeks to heal, a masked ball and the iron ring on your third finger... La Bague d’O is our olfactory reimagining of Pauline Réage’s infamous creation.

The story opens like a fairytale. O is whisked off to a chateau by her lover, and there her journey of sexual submission begins. A book that was never meant to be published began its life as a series of letters from a woman to her lover. When Story of O was released under a pseudonym, its future was secured as both a controversial classic and a literary achievement. Years later the novel was made even more surprising when its serious, reserved author was finally revealed. Writing in pencil “so as not to stain the sheets”, Anne Desclos – writing under the pen names Pauline Réage and Dominique Aury – composed Story of O in bed as a series of letters to prove to her married lover that the female sexual imagination could be more subversive than a man’s. In 1975, Just Jaeckin’s film adaptation added a layer of soft-focus fantasy to the tale, and showed us the steely, autonomous resolve of its heroine.

Wear La Bague d’O if you want to smell like you belong to a secret society.

Note: The first 300 bottles come with a limited-edition collage inspired by La Bague D'O and created specially for us by artist Katrien De Blauwer.

Perfumer: Julie Dunkley