September 11, 2026 |
High above the steamy streets of Naples, in a hotel suite with a sweeping view of Mount Vesuvius, master perfumer Olivier Cresp is talking about Your Devotion, his latest fragrance creation for Dolce & Gabbana. “I have a special connection with Italy and a special connection with Dolce & Gabbana,” explains Cresp, who’s first fragrance for the brand was Light Blue, which launched in 2001 and has remained a best seller ever since. “They are outstanding in fashion, very daring. They take risks, and that’s also my philosophy, to take risks,” says Cresp of his special relationship with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
Cresp is legend in the fragrance world. He’s often called the King of Gourmand because he pioneered a new olfactory family of food-inspired scents that smell good enough to eat and trigger feel-good emotions. Amongst Cresp’s era-defining scents are Thierry Mugler’s Angel (1992), Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium (2014) and Dior’s Midnight Poison (2007). But Cresp’s most enduring brand association has been with Dolce & Gabbana.
He loves working with the designers, because they are not driven by focus groups. “They follow their feelings,” says Cresp. “They know what beautiful means.” Most importantly, he says, their creative relationship is built on trust. “Stefano [Gabbana], he has a good eye and a good nose,” says Cresp, giving high praise to the designer who has impressed him with his instinct for fragrances. “He feels it.” And just like his designer collaborators, Cresp is also guided by instinct. “I am not inspired by the market. I just want to feel, like I did with Angel what will be next – not in ten years but next year or the year after.” He adds, “The nose will tell you if the idea is good or not. But what is important is getting the good feeling inside you. Feeling the trends, feeling what is next.”
For Dolce & Gabbana, what’s next is growing their Devotion family of fragrances. The original Devotion, launched in 2023, and has quickly become a key pillar in the brand’s fragrance universe, alongside Light Blue and The One. Cresp recalls his initial conversation with the designers about Devotion, over a dinner at the brand’s Martini restaurant in Milan. At the end of the meal, he says, the chef presented them with a beautiful panettone, made with his new recipe. “It was very light and here was no sugar. Which was very interesting.” Later that week, back in Paris, Cresp, as is his habit, was recording all the different flavours and ingredients he’d sampled on his Milan trip and couldn’t get that magical panettone out of his head. It formed the basis of Devotion. Building from a vanilla base, he took grapes, lemon and orange, from the panettone flavours, added orange blossom, honey and traces of toffee to the mix and a hint of sesame “for a toastier effect”. His first blend impressed the designers so much they said they take the formula on the spot, but Cresp took it away and finessed it further. The final version of Devotion, with its striking sacred heart adorned bottled, expresses something personal for the designers he says. “It draws from their roots. The sacred part is their DNA.”
The fragrance has gone on to become one of the brands best-sellers, but one striking part of the Devotion success story is the absence of focus groups. Instead, the designers and Cresp, trusted their instincts. “We didn’t test it,” says Cresp. “That’s not normal any longer. All the big groups, they test and test. They wash and they re-wash. In the end you have nothing left.”
He’s since added to the Devotion family, creating two men’s versions, as well as My Devotion with its green fruity accords, laced with, pear blossom and cassis top notes. He describes his latest addition, Your Devotion as “Gourmand in a different way: fruity, milky with melon, there as well.” The distinctive melon note gives it, “juiciness, fruitiness”, whilst notes of mandarin and lemon bring a citrus freshness for, “a sparkling effect”. The orange blossom reminds Cresp of the Mediterranean Sea, and like all his Dolce and Gabbana fragrances, “is always linked with their fashion or their life.” Cresp wanted to add a white flower to the formula – settling on gardenia over tuberose which he felt was too ubiquitous in the industry. Then, to match the sensuality of the campaign film starring Irina Shayk and Michele Morrone, he wanted to add sandalwood to Your Devotion for, “something creamy.” Vanilla and oakmoss bring a warmth, inspired, he says, by being in Southern Italy in the summer, opening his windows and being hit by the heat. “It is so powerful.” Welcome to the family.
Photography courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana.
