The Scented Candle Pioneers

When painter Desmond Knox-Leet, interior and textile designer Christiane Gautrot and theater manager Yves Coueslant opened the first Diptyque boutique on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in 1961, it was the most inspired fabric shop in Paris. Yes, fabric.

Two years later, the trio launched a collection of scented candles that would forever shape the style world’s obsession with fragrance. Imagine any fashionable home without at least one of Diptyque’s inimitable Baies candles? C’est impossible. The newest Diptyque boutique opens this month at NorthPark Center, paying homage to the original Paris flagship, with sleek wood floors, wall coverings in malachite and a design spun from the famous Diptyque candle label, a mirrored perfume station and rainbow-hued paper-wrapped candles behind the register.

Dyptique’s offerings are deep — candles, perfumes, diffusers and skincare products — so we queried managing director Donna DiDonato for her must-haves. “The Baies candle and its Baies Noire counterpart, moisturizing Nourishing Cleansing Balm and Eau des Sens eau de toilette,” she responds, the latter launching globally just in time for the Dallas debut.

Of Eau des Sens, DiDonato says, “It’s inspired by the confusion of the senses. And it is the epitome of how Diptyque approaches the creation of fragrance with absolute freedom.”