It smells like midnight in the Bois de Boulogne — sexy and mysterious. I think it creates a mood. It’s alluring. It says, I’m interested in life, in olfactory senses as well as visual ones.
— Actress Anjelica Huston talks about Jean Patou 1000, in Timeless 1,001 Nights at the New York Times. Many thanks to SuddenlyInexplicably for the link!
Oh! I have been lemming 1000 for a while now; this will probably push me over the edge…
It would push me over the edge too — she really loves 1000!
I of course have to snarkily (not a word, says spellcheck!) remark on the comment section. 1.) Bal a Versailles is NOT Patou, and 2.) I love the statements that 1000 is hard to find. (Ok, I’ll admit by many standards it is. I guess in perfumista land, “hard to fnd” means something different than “not easily found in a department store.”)
Got up on the wrong side of the bed. 🙂
Oh, the comments are funny — I hadn’t looked!
Sexy and mysterious? Midnight? She sure gets something different from 1000 than I do! I do like it, though.
Perhaps it is all in how you wear it! It isn’t the perfume I would have matched to her (wonderful) description.
I’m generally a Patou fan, and for some reason, I have never tried this one although I have long wanted to. I wonder if it’s like everything else and the older the better?
Probably!
1000 was my stepmom’s signature scent for years. I don’t know if I could pull it off – it’s quite something. She wore Bal a Versailles, too.
Thanks for the link, Robin. Very cool: I like Angelica Huston and adore 1000 – so much so that I sprung for a vintage 1/2 ounce parfum AND a quarter ounce — you guys may know that classic opaque blue glass flacon with the red cap — and despite the fiscal insanity of that, I think it was one of the most worthwhile extravagances in my entire perfumistaship. (Oh, and I have 2.5oz of vintage edt and a back-up ounce as well, split with a dear friend, so you know how serious about Mille I am. 😉 )
Rappleyea, I don’t know if older is better in the case of 1000, as I haven’t tried the current formulation, and would love it if someone weighed in on that question with personal experience. I do know that I have never come across a fragrance which has actually gotten better through reformulation — again, if someone has, I’d love to hear about it. Of course, that’s just my own opinion, since my tastes run to the kinds of particular notes that vintage formulations feature: heavy doses of oakmoss, civet, castoreum, Mysore sandalwood and the like. They’re not for everyone. And I do know a friend of mine prefers the current iteration of Tabac Blond (and she’s an experienced vintage hound), so nothing’s carved in stone!
It’s so hard to describe 1000, because it’s such a dense blend of things. Osmanthus is the key floral note, but it’s really mixed in so well with the other notes that it’s not easy to tease out. The small folder inside my quarter-ounce vintage box lists Chinese osmanthus and Bulgarian rose as the topnotes and jasmine from Grasse, Mysore sandalwood, violet, patchouli and Rose de Mai as the heart and base notes.
I do know that it has a decidedly French feel to it and that that impression comes from the base, which other sources have noted includes civet and vetiver. It is rather animalic, for sure, and the vetiver is a definite presence. Although it doesn’t have oakmoss (or if it does, it’s not enough to make anyone’s list of notes) it evidently has a touch of eucalyptus which seems to be the note that gives it a bit of a green, chypre-like bite.
I had to rush to dab some on, I got so excited thinking about 1000. If you’re wanting to put it into a modern context, I think that Parfums MDCI’s Enlevement au Serail comes closest stylistically, although that one is a bit sweeter and fruitier.
Hope that helps anyone who’s curious about 1000.
Thank you so much. That does help. I’ll dab on Enlèvement later and imagine… 😉
“It smells like midnight in the Bois de Boulogne… ”
LOL
What was Ms Huston doing there at midnight???
Took the words out of my mouth!
This is American romanticizing for the most part, because Bois de Boulogne is filled with prostitutes, crack addicts and people searching for adventures of an promiscuous kind. (not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, mind you)
But does 1000 smell like that? I think it’s much more sophisticated.
There is no end to 1000’s beauty. So right, you just can’t pin it down. You can’t simply like it, you adore it. They might as well have called it Enigma. Should be in every time capsule!
Ooh, what a GREAT homage to a fragrance! Love Anjelica Houston also.
The one bit about wearing it to bed made it sound like “unless I’m wearing pearls to bed.”
Now I really need to get a dab of 1000 soon; I’ve never smelled it. It also rekindles my curiosity to smell Elizabeth Arden Blue Grass.
And the comments over there at NYT really are pretty funny.