Optimism, courage, desire to excel, friendship, empowerment, sense of community: all these values can fit inside a skateboard. And 212 Heroes, the Carolina Herrera universe premiered in 2021 under the sign of audaciousness, youth and freedom, opens a new chapter with 212 Heroes, the fragrance, a new eau de toilette for women that celebrates the adventure of being yourself.

212 Heroes is an innovative eau de toilette with a vegan formula and a bottle that revisits the already iconic 212 Men Heroes skateboard. And, on the occasion of its official launch, is surrounded by an expanded version of the 212 Gang, a dream team of multidisciplinary talents who do not care about tags and categories.

“There is something heroic in the fact of standing out for your personality in a world that wants to shape you and turn you into a stereotype”, explains Carolina A. Herrera, creative director of Carolina Herrera fragrances. “212 Heroes celebrates rebelliousness as a way of life and opens a new chapter of this adventure built around the transformative power of youth. The women who accompany this new launch are inspiring because of their extreme love for freedom. They prove that beauty and talent are not linked to outdated notions anymore, but to something that is far more intuitive and unpredictable, as vertiginous as the feeling of jumping on a skateboard. This is how this fragrance is”. In summer 2021, Carolina Herrera launched 212 Men Heroes, a new concept that pushes freedom, audaciousness and no-filter authenticity. Now the family gets bigger with 212 Heroes, a new star in this inclusive universe that celebrates youth as a state of mind.  

Thus the 212 Heroes leit motiv, “Forever Young”, gets a new meaning in a context where women hold the key to social transformation and show that youth, beyond age, is a state of mind that allows everyone to change the world. 

212 Heroes, a celebration of the women who are changing the world

The new 212 eau de toilette for women is an innovative fragrance with a vegan formula and a revolutionary bottle inspired by the silhouette of a skateboard. “212 Men Heroes received an enthusiast reaction from men from all over the world, but also from women who feel identified with a concept that goes far beyond the strict gender division”, explains Carolina A. Herrera, creative director of Carolina Herrera fragrances. “212 Heroes expands this universe and underlines the personalities of fabulous women who are changing the world with their nature, commitment, freedom and talent”. 

212 Heroes is presented by the 212 Gang collective, the Gen-Z talented crew who are leaving their mark on cinema, fashion, music, social media and skateboard, the common thread of the project. In 212 Heroes, the spotlight is on the girls of the collective: Indya Moore, Taylor Hill, Rachelle Vinberg, Sita Abellán, Tess McMillan, Charlotte Rose, Ko Hyo Joo and three new members: skaters Sierra Prescott, Lizzie Armanto and Aori Nishimura. 

The campaign portrays New York as an enormous skate park where the 212 Gang girls hit the streets on wheels, have fun, go out and share experiences, joy and euphoria with the soundtrack of Youth Group’s ‘Forever Young’, the already iconic 212 Heroes anthem. In the last months of 2021, while the world wakes up from a global nightmare, the optimism of the footage is an invitation to recover the streets as a meeting point and a celebration of the city as a playground for experimentation and self-expression. If freedom can be summoned up in a skateboard, a city can become a skate park of endless horizons.

Floral Fruity: meet the fragrance 

The 212 Heroes formula is as vertiginous as a kickflip, a skate trick with an initiatory value for skateboarding fans. Here, the key is the juxtaposition of ingredients that are both energetic and slightly effervescent: the olfactive signature of the 212 Carolina Herrera universe since 1996. The result is a Floral Fruity fragrance full of colour and audaciousness, signed by perfumers Dora Baghriche, Marie Salamagne and Alberto Morillas, from Firmenich.

The top notes are a surprising explosion of citrus and fruity notes. The star is raspberry, intense and funny, created through biotechnology to underline its playful facets. Mandarin, with its bitter sweetness, is not the most conventional citrus, but conventions are out of the game here.

The heart notes feature white flowers: sheer youth romanticism. Orange flower, of sweet, Mediterranean nuances, and jasmine sambac, the signature flower of the Carolina Herrera universe. Its creamy softness opens the path for the base notes, that linger on the skin through the drydown and enhance the sillage, the olfactive halo of the fragrance. In 212 Heroes, the key ingredients are cedarwood and sandalwood, two contemporary woody notes that play with the gender conventions and bring depth and warmth to the fragrance.

A sustainable and vegan fragrance 

Just like 212 Men Heroes, 212 Heroes is 100% vegan, as certify the standards set by the prestigious organization EVE (Expertise Vegan Europe). Besides, in a quest for the best raw materials, several ingredients are sustainably sourced. The jasmine sambac used in the formula comes from the Chinese región of Hengxian, where the blossoms are hand-picked early in the morning and travel directly to the factories where they are processed in order to extract jasmine absolute. The other white flower of the fragrance, orange flower, comes from Morocco, where the Carolina Herrera suppliers organize programs to empower the women who harvest the flowers.

Virginia cedarwood, from Texas and Alabama, is upcycled: the producers use reclaimed cedars which are cut down only when they have reached their mature age, without damaging the younger trees that surround them and making sure that all the parts of the cedar tree are used. Sandalwood is from Australia, and its producer cares for the conservation and protection of this species, seriously endangered in other regions of the world.

A skateboard to celebrate endless youth

For decades, Carolina Herrera fragrances have broken the rules at different levels, including bottles. The 212 Heroes one is one of our most ambitious designs ever. Its silhouette evokes 

the skateboard of 212 Men Heroes, but with new proportions, new contrasts between materials –crystal and metal– and new sizes: 80 ml, 50 ml y 30 ml. The latter one, with a higher proportion of crystal than the bigger sizes, aims to make 212 Heroes the everyday, on-the-go fragrance for women around the world. 

The pink shade that bathes the bottles of the collection is a gesture of optimism and luminousness that reveals Gen-Z visual language: a way of expression and an object of desire both in Social Media and in nondigital life.

A gang of fearless women

The faces of 212 Heroes celebrate talent, beauty, rebelliousness and empowerment. Along Indya Moore, Taylor Hill, Rachelle Vinberg, Sita Abellán, Tess McMillan, Charlotte Rose and Ko Hyo Joo, founding members of Gang 212, this new chapter welcomes three new members: Sierra Prescott, Lizzie Armanto and Aori Nishimura, three women who have turned skateboarding in a way of life and expression.  

The model and performer Indya Moore is one of the most irreverent voices of their generation. The activist who found success in the FX series Pose has debunked myths and obstacles. Moore has posed for famous brands and in the last Pirelli Calendar, the first time it portrays a non-binary model. Based in New York and of Haitian, Dominican and Puerto-Rican descent, Moore fights for the use of a more inclusive language and defends the usage of the pronoun “they” for the non-binary gender. Time Magazine included them in the list of the most influential people in 2019.

Taylor Hill, part of the Gang 212 since 2017, is one of the most booked and famous models of recent years. She was discovered at 14 years old and ever since she has been featured on several magazines covers in the world. She set her sights on acting and in 2016 nabbed a cameo in the shocking Neon Demon directed by Nicolas Winding Fern (Drive).

Sita Abellán is a reflection of our times: versatile and creative, this dj from Murcia (Spain) works as a model, stylist and jewelry and bags designer. Best known for her cameo in Rihanna’s videoclip, Bitch Better have my money, she has a degree in Advertisement and is the muse and stylist of major fashion houses.

Tess MacMillan has defied conventions and fashion and beauty standards. She has debunked prejudices. This Texan model, based in New York, has swiftly risen in the fashion world. She is more than a renowned international model; she is the symbol of more plural and inclusive aesthetics. 

Charlotte Rose is the young model everybody is talking about. The Californian native is the face of Carolina Herrera makeup and has walked in the brand’s latest shows. She is taking fashion by storm with her natural and casual looks.

Strong-willed and empowered, the skater Rachelle Vinberg conquered social media with Skate Kitchen, an Instagram group that inspires and unites female skaters. Portraying them as a starting point, the project became an autofiction documentary that inspired the upcoming female led skateboarding comedy Betty on HBO, where Vinberg participates. 

Korean longboarder Ko Hyo Joo is one of Asia’s most famous fashion icons and Instagram stars. Her YouTube videos – featuring her particular style of dancing while skating–have caught the attention of millions around the world. She also works as a user interface designer at LINE Korea [messaging app]. She has collaborated with international brands and has appeared in several fashion and beauty magazines.

Sierra Prescott is equally in love with photography and skateboarding. Her atypical career has made her one of those influencers who are much, much more than just an angel face. Her photographs and videos irradiate light, sun, speed and female empowerment with a Californian twist, and celebrate empathy and sense of community among women in a typically male-dominated field.

Skater Lizzie Armanto became worldfamous as the first woman ever to complete Tony Hawk’s Death Loop, one of those achievements only accessible to first-class champions. This year, in Tokyo 2020, she made history again when she joined the first generation of skateboarders competing in the Olympic Games. Tony Hawk, the most famous skater of all times, has praised her talent, but Lizzie’s magic is beyond those recognitions: she is one of the faces that illustrate the evolution of skateboarding in the 21st century: from al almost-illicit practice to Olympic sport, from a maledominated discipline to a tool for female empowerment, from a way of exposing one’s own skills to a language of free expression. 

Aori Nishimura also participated in Tokyo 2020. The Japanese-born, California-based athlete started skating at seven, and she knows that skateboarding is a long-distance race and just giving up is not an option: in 2017 she got a severe injury in her knee, but she was recovered in 6 months and resumed an impressive career. She he was crowned world skateboarding champion in the World Skateboarding Championship. 

About Carolina Herrera 

Carolina Herrera is an international fashion and beauty house recognized for its colorful, joyful and confident take on life. Founded in 1981 by Carolina Herrera, the eponymous label’s scope has steadily grown and now includes ready-towear clothing and accessories for women, men, and children, as well as bridal wear, fragrances, and makeup. The House’s fragrance adventure began in 1988 with the launch of Carolina Herrera’s first eau de parfum. In 1996, Mrs. Herrera’s daughter, Carolina A. Herrera, joined the company for the launch of 212 and was appointed to the role of Beauty Creative Director in 2020. Today, she leads a division that comprises over 20 fragrances with a presence in more than 120 countries worldwide - including the Herrera Confidential collection, CH, Bad Boy and the wildly successful Good Girl and 212 - and is also responsible for the brand’s first-ever makeup line, Herrera Beauty. A quintessentially New York brand, the House of Herrera is defined by its three lines: Helmed by Creative Director Wes Gordon, Carolina Herrera New York embodies the fearless & fabulous women of today who aren’t afraid to stand out in style. CH Carolina Herrera portrays a bold, solar and free-spirited approach to fashion and beauty. Finally, 212 Carolina Herrera is aligned with the fresh energy of young New Yorkers who live for parties and shared experiences. Known for embracing elegance with a touch of irreverence, the brand’s fashion and beauty collections reflect the iconic style and effortless sophistication inherent to its founder, Carolina Herrera. Follow @carolinaherrera on Instagram and Facebook.com/CarolinaHerreraNY for the latest news.