At first glance Natalie Portman’s new Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet campaign seems straightforward enough. The floral scent features notes of bergamot essence, Damascus rose, and peony with the tagline: “Love is a bouquet.”

Portman’s elegant wildflowers scarf is wrapped around her wrist as a symbol of prestige but also strength. We interpret the campaign one way without the video.

Enter Janis Joplin

The music to Natalie Portman’s new Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet campaign is Janis Joplin for heaven’s sake. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

What does Portman do? She turns to US and says WAKE UP! Yes, the video is a lovely romp in the wildflowers in the name of love.

But Natalie Portman is not only a Palestinian rights activist who loves Israel but she turned down the $1 million Genesis prize in 2018, refusing to stand next to Israel’s once again prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When Natalie Portman looks straight at me in a Janis Joplin music commercial and says WAKE UP, she has my undivided attention.

Enter Catherine, the French Resistance, Mitzah Bricard to Create the Miss Dior Fragrance

Just last week, writing about Dior Beauty’s Mitzah Collection [inspired by leopard prints], AOC shared the story of the naming of the Miss Dior fragrance.

Dior Beauty's Mitzah Collection, with Anya Taylor-Joy Taps Leopard Prints in Women's History AOC Fashion

To summarize, we wrote:

Christian Dior’s original muse Mitzah Bricard inspired him to recognize the leopard print as a reputable trend. . . Mitzah Bricard, not only wore animal prints lavishly, but frequently in scarves wrapped around her wrists.

At least one wrist was visibly scarred after a suicide attempt based on my reading.

We contrast Madame Bricard with Christian Dior’s own sister Catherine, who in 1941 joined the French resistance; was arrested in 1944, repeatedly tortured by the Gestapo [never betraying her comrades]; sent to the women’s concentration camp, Ravensbrück, only to be transferred to further abysmal camps: Torgau, Abteroda, and finally, in 1945, to Markkleeberg.

The story ended well; Catherine survived and returned to France. Back in Paris Christian Dior was working on a fragrance with Mizza Bricard, and Catherine walked into the room, interrupting their brainstorming search to name the fragrance that “smells of love.”

Design lore has it that “Ah, here!” Bricard exclaimed, “Miss Dior!” An iconic fragrance was born.

AOC wrote in 2019 about Natalie Portman’s human connection and deep respect for Catherine Dior. In the interview for Harpers Bazaar UK, the Hollywood star had sober words for progressive optimists:

“I think it’s a mistake to think of humanity as evolving,” the intellectually-accomplished Portman explains. You want to believe it, for sure, but it’s more like cycles of violence. Yet we’ve had an extraordinary lifetime of peace, too, so it’s allowed us to live in this belief that progress is being made.”