Many people recoil at a whiff of an old school chypre. A chypre’s citrus-oakmoss-labdanum-patchouli signature doesn’t pander and can be downright off-putting for the inexperienced. Grand chypres are so old fashioned. They rarely seduce you with mouthwatering berries and Orange Crush-like fruit. They don’t flaunt their sexiness with blatant oriental notes. They waft fusty oak moss. I get it. I understand all the repugnance. And I love old school chypres just the same.

When I say “old school chypre,” I mean a big chypre, a chypre that doesn’t hide its identity under woody musk. Some of the classic old school chypres, besides Rochas Femme and Guerlain Mitsouko (perhaps the benchmarks), are Christian Dior Miss Dior (now called Miss Dior Classic), Acqua di Parma Profumo, Chanel Cristalle, Hermès Calèche, Niki de Saint Phalle, Nina Ricci Fille d’Eve and Balmain Miss Balmain, to name a few…

Read the rest of this article »