Until someone invents smell-o-vision, fragrance ads must rely on inventive ways to woo consumers through sight and sound. Jamie Dornan’s new perfume campaign for Loewe has no shortage of compelling material in store for fans of architectural gems and handsome men. “The sun shines through the window of a villa on a summer’s day,” reads the caption of the Instagram video shared by the Spanish fashion house earlier this week, setting the scene for a shirtless, denim-clad Dornan hosing down a verdant lawn. Except the house behind the Irish actor isn’t just any old villa—it’s Le Corbusier’s modernist masterpiece Villa Savoye, located in Poissy, France.
Completed in 1931, the white concrete dwelling is regarded as a perfect example of the Swiss-French architect’s “Five Points of Architecture” manifesto. Those five principles, which are considered crucial tenets of modernist architecture, are pilotis (reinforced stilts that raise up the building), free design of the ground plan (an open floor plan, free of load-bearing partitioning walls), free design of the façade, horizontal windows, and a roof garden. Villa Savoye, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016, features all of the above. Today, the villa is open to the public.
“The house is quiet, still, each room has a different scent, a different purpose,” Loewe’s caption continues. A camera follows Australian actor Sophie Wilde up the iconic structure’s white ribbon of a spiral staircase, which features a floating black bannister. Next, we see Dornan taking a dip in the primary bath’s dreamy blue-tiled sunken tub. “Splashed puddles cool on the Le Corbusier floor, and steam rises from the crackling bubbles.” Wilde reclines on the built-in, black-tiled chaise bordering the tub, and the two stars share smoldering stares. Behind her, two Loewe perfumes are perched on the window sill.
In his time off set, Dornan is no stranger to luxuriating in the tub, per Vogue. “A very dear friend of mine was once round at our house for dinner, and when he went home, he said he was going to have an ‘opera bath’ and asked if I’d ever had one,” he told the outlet. “It’s quite self-explanatory, but you make the bath quite bubbly—I’m a lavender fan—and bring speakers in and listen to opera. Maybe bring in a little bottle of red wine and a bowl of M&Ms too. I’ve done it a few times. It’s indulgent and ridiculous, but it’s the sort of thing I do if I’m away filming, so my kids can’t come in and disturb me.” We can only hope that he got some me-time in the lavish Villa Savoye bathroom after the cameras cut.
