ARMOR

EXTRAIT DE PARFUM

Recently, perfumer Diane St. Clair re-discovered Barbara Kruger’s “Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)” created for the 1989 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C. For St. Clair, this iconic protest art is as relevant today as it was then.

After 50 years of legal protection for reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade, these protections were nullified with the 2022 Dobbs decision. This has resulted in many states outlawing women’s right to choose. Amidst these setbacks, the specter of growing contempt for women reared its ugly head again after the shocking case in France of Gisele Pelicot. Police discovered that Pelicot’s husband, over the span of a decade, routinely drugged her and invited strangers to join him in raping her. These men defended their actions, saying that they assumed her husband could grant them permission for such acts.

Diane has created two perfumes, Armor and Sanctuary, to use the art of scent — and its power to provoke our deepest emotions — to speak out against a culture that allows men to control women’s bodies without their consent. She hopes that wearing these perfumes can provide a sense of both empowerment and security.

Armor captures the sentiment of Barbara Kruger’s “Battleground” piece with its gathering dark and foreboding aromas which represent the forces of misogyny. Over time, the axis shifts from aromas of threat to a bucolic garden of citrus, fruits, and blooms that offer strength, protection, and liberating power.

Perfume writer Alex Musgrave says of this perfume:

“Women are not vessels to be hurled to a masculine floor and shattered. Fragrance can be a beautiful armor.”

Armor and Sanctuary are conceptual fragrances designed to evoke a feeling without a disclosed list of notes or materials used to create them.

Perfumer: Diane St. Clair, 2025