A thing of beauty is a Dior forever

My cherie amour, lovely as a summer day
My cherie amour, distant
as the milky way
My cherie amour, pretty
little one that I adore
You’re the only girl my heart beats for
How I wish that you were mine

It lingers like the haunting melody of Stevie Wonder’s song My Cherie Amour.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you: If you smell it and wear it, you won’t be able to live without it. Oui, Miss Dior Cherie is a thing of beauty that’s a Dior forever. Picture a gaggle of giggly young girls on a night out, garbed in Dior from head to toe and carrying a huge bag of pink popcorn. Just like the svelte figure on the chic ad of Miss Dior Cherie. If the model’s cherubic face looks endearingly familiar, it’s because the 16-year-old, 5’6" charmer – indeed the quintessential Miss Dior Cherie – is the daughter of Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley, who is the daughter of Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock ’n Roll Elvis Presley. The King lives (though he may have left the building)!

Miss Dior Cherie and Danielle Riley Presley Keough: it’s a match made in heaven. Or to put it pat, it’s heaven-scent!

"She cracks her knuckles, chews bubblegum and already has the Dior attitude," says designer John Galliano of the new Dior girl. "Riley’s the perfect coming-of-age icon. She embodies fun. She is sugar and spice, all things nice, the girl next door and rock royalty, and the name on everyone’s lips. She’s the girl you want to hang out with, wish you looked like, and know will be a star ..."

But for now, Riley, born May 29, 1989, is just a girl who wants "to see the world, try new things, and not look into the future but kind of wait for it to happen."

And now, it’s starting to happen. How did it all start? What was John Galliano thinking when he was creating this scent?

John waxes melodic: "Perfume is like music or a memory, it paints a picture in your mind... When you close your eyes, you can still hear a melody, still sense an essence, still see a beautiful woman; so when I was dreaming of this scent, this woman, that is exactly what I did, I shut my eyes... and tried to create the image..."

Just what did he see in his dream?

John reveals, "Maybe Miss Dior Cherie is rifling through her mother’s closet. She’s teetering in her stilettos as she peers through the rails to see what treasures await her, and what she can borrow to wear out tonight. From mother to daughter, and now to her, the clothes are classic and timeless – it is the way they are worn that makes them elegant and individual. Now, it’s time for a new generation to experiment how to wear them, with heels, trainers or biker boots. Her scent has to be equally unpredictable."

Predictably, Miss Dior Cherie took the fragrance world by storm when it made its debut this year to honor, yes, the classic 1950 Miss Dior.

Suddenly, even your untrained nose can tell there’s a whiff of history – and legacy – in the perfumed air. The nose simply knows it. You travel back in time to the year 1947 when Monsieur Christian Dior sparked off a revolution with the launch of his "New Look" designs and his Miss Dior perfume as a finishing touch to his clothes.

But make no mistake about it. Miss Dior Cherie, though an olfactory chip off the old block, is not a remake. According to John Galliano, "It might echo the classic glass bottle of its elder, but it’s new, with that sweet, irreverent metal bow about its neck."

John notes the message in the bottle: "Her scent has the sophistication of experience but mixed with pink bubblegum and youth. This is what I wanted to bottle, her inquisitive elegance and approachable perfection and joie de vivre."

He further asserts, "I did not want to re-brand a classic, nor would the new Miss Dior want to wear a re-bottled Miss Dior. As fashion evolves, so must its scent, she needs to have something that captures her in the moment of today."

Perfumer Christine Nagel describes Miss Dior Cherie as one with a much more contemporary interpretation. She shares this sweet secret: "I first thought of destructuring the chypre accord by replacing moss with a purer, lighter crystalline musk. The traditional green top was transformed into a fresh, sparkling accord with bergamot and green mandarin. The true signature of the note, which is what makes Miss Dior Cherie so original, is found in the heart of the fragrance: a gourmand touch that combines the sophistication of pink jasmine with a surprising harmony of wild strawberry sorbet and caramalized popcorn."

Hmmmm ... We agree with Christine that her unique concoction is deliciously irresistible. Or you can take Riley’s word for it: It’s cool, it’s wild, it’s unexpected.

Or go ahead and spray it on where you want to be kissed – and feel all the love and Dior around you.

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Miss Dior Cherie debuts this year at the Christian Dior perfumery section of Rustan’s.