Prada Blends Complex Composition And Bold Fragrance With Paradigme Cologne

Luxury fashion house Prada is challenging the conventions of masculine fragrance with its latest scent, Paradigme.

Named as an augmented anagram of “Prada,” Paradigme is a continuation of the brand’s exploration of unconventional ideas, a journey that began with its popular fragrance Paradoxe. The new scent, a collaboration between master perfumers Marie Salamagne, Bruno Jovanovic and Nicolas Bonneville, rejects a static definition of masculinity in favor of “unending motion, experimentation, and individuality.”

Paradigme is an Ambery Woody signature scent, defined by its complex simplicity and bold restraint. Its most unique feature, however, is its composition. The perfumers inverted the traditional fragrance pyramid, which typically features top, middle and base notes. Instead, they built Paradigme from the base up.

“Inverting the conventions of composition to create a ‘reverse pyramid’ allowed the fragrance to unfold uniquely, with base notes emerging first and gradually revealing heart and top notes,” said Prada perfumer Nicolas Bonneville. “This inversion creates a truly captivating and unexpected experience.”

The fragrance opens with an Ambery Woody base of Peru Balm, Benzoin resin and Guaiac wood, providing a smoky and resinous texture. Those scents are followed by a heart of geranium extracts, which lends a reinvented floral and rosy facet to the traditional masculine note. The scent culminates with top notes of Calabrian bergamot heart and airy musks, creating a sense of “unparalleled brilliance,” according to Prada.

“Paradigme is an irresistibly harmonious experience of tension, through which the senses navigate endlessly, between softness and freshness, strength and delicacy, power and subtlety,” added principal perfumer Marie Salamagne of Prada’s latest cologne, which was amplified by a campaign starring Spider-Man and The Odyssey actor Tom Holland.

Prada Paradigme is available now in 50ml and 100ml bottles, starting at $115.