Half a century before Britney Spears gave us “a story about a girl named Lucky” or a Mormon model and his wife took TikTok by storm, there was Christian Dior’s Lucie “Lucky” Daouphars. Born on the coast of France, Daouphars moved to Paris and began modeling—quickly becoming a favorite at House of Dior.
“Mr. Dior had three models he loved to work with,” master perfumer and director of parfums for the house Francis Kurkdjian recalls. “But Lucie was very special. She got the nickname of ‘Lucky’ because basically every dress that she wore for a presentation was a best seller in the collection.” Dior himself once said of his muse, “Lucky is fashion itself brought to life.”
Bellini
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS / Getty Images
So when Dior launched its luxurious Privée fragrance collection in 2018, it only made sense that one would be named Lucky Eau de Parfum. (It should be noted that this isn’t the first Dior fragrance created in homage to one of Christian’s muses—there’s also Miss Dior, which honored his sister, Catherine.) The “luck” behind the scent was actually two-fold: The original juice, made by François Demachy, spun superstitious designer Dior’s favorite flower—lily of the valley—into a dewy white-floral scent that both paid homage to the model and the designer’s favorite flower. It was an instant favorite.
When Kurkdijan took over at Dior for Demachy in 2021, one of his dream projects was to reinvent the Privée collection with his own olfactive twist. Of course, Lucky was at the top of the list. “I wanted to go back to the lily note and sharpen it,” he says. “For me, the Lucky scent needed to be all about the lily of the valley. It’s a flower that grows in the shade, in a mossy environment—it’s a space that’s wet and dark, so it needed a strong edge.” Lucky was reborn into Lucky Esprit de Parfum. Of course, the lily of the valley is still the heart of the fragrance, but it’s now mixed with leather and wood to give it a bit of earthy vibrance.
After she quit modeling, Lucky the woman went on to do great things. She created the first union in France for models, and Kurkdjian describes her as a “cool girl.” “Lucky had a special way of wearing things,” the perfumer says. “She had that oomph. Lucky Esprit has that oomph, too.”
