Rihanna’s Dior video with Francis Kurkdjian and YEPREM rings
- Published
- Updated
- Place
- Paris, France
- Event date
- Past event —
Summary
On 2 November Dior released the full version of “Blind Scents”, a video of about four and a half minutes devoted to J’adore Intense. Rihanna, the face of J’adore since 2024, smells the fragrance’s raw materials blind and tries to identify them, guided by the man who created it: Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s Perfume Creation Director, a Frenchman of Armenian descent. The first clips in the series were released on 1 November. On her fingers, the singer wears rings by YEPREM, the jewellery house founded in Beirut in 1964 by Yeprem Chakardemian, who is of Armenian descent; the brand itself pointed this out on Instagram. Two names from the Armenian diaspora thus come together in this Dior campaign.
Video
Analysis
Born near Paris in 1969, Francis Kurkdjian composed Le Mâle for Jean Paul Gaultier at 25, then co-founded Maison Francis Kurkdjian in 2009. Dior named him Perfume Creation Director in October 2021. For J’adore Intense, launched in 2026, he says he made an exception: “It is rare for me to compose a fragrance with a specific woman in mind. For ‘J’adore Intense,’ however, I made an exception,” he explains in the fragrance’s presentation; the scent is inspired by Rihanna. Dior describes it as a “honeyed floral nectar”: jasmine with hints of apricot, rose and ylang-ylang over sandalwood and vanilla. The perfumer has never hidden his Armenian roots. His mother’s family came from Bandırma, on the Sea of Marmara; his grandmother Saténig survived the 1915 deportations before settling in France. When he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in July 2026, he dedicated the award to his grandparents, survivors of the Armenian genocide who became refugees in France. YEPREM, for its part, began with a gold bracelet the founder, Yeprem Chakardemian, received from his mother. The second generation, Virna, Loutfic and John Chakardemian, is now growing the house, which operates in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Rihanna already features among the celebrities showcased by the house, which in 2013 launched a bracelet set with a khachkar to support Armenian schools, an initiative backed by Charles Aznavour.
Possible consequences
The full video is embedded below, from Dior’s official YouTube channel. J’adore Intense is already on sale. Rihanna has been the face of J’adore since 2024, when she succeeded Charlize Theron.
