Hermès’s first chypre

Christine Nagel

Hermès Perfumer

Christine Nagel, Creative Director of Hermès Perfumes, has designed a sensual composition for Hermès’s very first chypre fragrance. She has worked tirelessly to construct, sculpt, and hone a captivating scent combining the delicate butterfly lily with the surprising miracle berry. Its warm trail of oakwood and its intense patchouli seal the emotion it conveys. This timeless blend of olfactory counterpoints melts onto the skin, revealing its characterful signature and leaving an unforgettable impression.

A sensual name

Barénia is a natural, heritage leather – an Hermès signature. Its fine, supple, and highly sensual texture yields softly to the skin on contact.

Barénia leather caresses, accompanies movement, embraces energy and welcomes boldness. It is instinctively attracted to liberated and intrepid souls. It is a metaphor for the Hermès chypre, which the skin draws in and makes its own forever. It is the symbiosis of body and soul, the signature of an unstoppable woman.

A stimulating object

Designer Philippe Mouquet, a longstanding partner of Hermès, drew inspiration from the iconic Collier de Chien bracelet to create a bottle of crystal-clear curves and precious metal. Its elliptical shape, overlaid with a metal plate bearing contoured studs with domed facets, echoes the line of the bracelet. These heritage elements come together harmoniously to create a powerful object that is symbolic of a lifelong signature fragrance.

Collier de Chien

The essence of
the Collier de Chien

Inspired by real dog collars once produced by Hermès Sellier, the Collier de Chien bracelet is an enduring Hermès classic.

A combination of leather and metal and an elegant object with irreverent overtones, this collar was adopted by women in the Roaring Twenties to assert their independence. The essence of the Collier de Chien—its lines, colors, and materials—is frequently revisited. It inspires bags, accessories, and objects—and, for the first time, a fragrance bottle.

Explore the world of Barénia through these short movies.

Watch the video

Christine Nagel

Nagel became a perfumer and creator at Hermès Perfumes in 2014. In 2016, she became the sole perfumer, a position that involves carrying on Hermès’s traditions of creation and perfumery. Her fragrances are noted for the perfect harmony of contrasting elements—a strict attention to detail and a sunny character—that call to mind her two home countries, respectively Switzerland and Italy.