The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
This fragrance was born from a collaboration between Jean Paul Gaultier and the NYC LGBT Community Center, released in 2024. The Pride Edition honors Keith Haring's iconic 'Once Upon a Time' mural, the same work celebrated on the bottle and tin, rendered in his unmistakable black-and-white strokes. The collaboration is also a charitable one, tied to Gaultier's ongoing commitment to diversity and equality. The fragrance is designed to embody that spirit: open, celebratory, unapologetically joyful. Yuzu and citrus open the composition like a sunrise, leading into orange blossom and neroli at the heart, closing on a musky-woody base that settles close to skin.
What makes this composition interesting is how it handles citrus, not as a sharp, fleeting top note, but as a sustained brightness that carries through the fragrance's first act. Yuzu, in particular, brings a tartness that distinguishes it from standard lemon or bergamot openings. The heart of orange blossom and neroli is a deliberate choice for a Pride fragrance: florals that are tender without being precious, sweet without being cloying. The woody-musky base anchors everything, ensuring the scent doesn't disappear but instead becomes something personal, a signature, not a statement.
The evolution
The opening arrives fast: yuzu and citrus create an immediate burst of tart brightness. It's the olfactory equivalent of stepping outside on the first warm day of the season. Citrus dominates for the first twenty to thirty minutes, sharp and clean, before the florals begin to emerge. Orange blossom takes over around the thirty-minute mark, softening the composition considerably. Neroli follows, adding a honeyed, slightly bitter edge that keeps the florals from feeling too delicate. By the second hour, musk and woody notes arrive, not heavy, but present, settling the fragrance into a skin-close warmth that lasts the remaining hours. Moderate sillage throughout. The drydown is intimate by design.
Cultural impact
The collector's bottle features Keith Haring's unmistakable broad black-and-white strokes, celebrating his mural at the NYC LGBT Community Center. The fragrance translates Haring's pop-art energy into scent: bright, unapologetic, joyful. It's a Pride fragrance that works as a fragrance first, and as a statement second.
