The scent, created by the legendary French parfumier Bernard Chant, was tangy, feral, and almost too naughty to wear to work, but this mildly transgressive quality was a big part of the appeal. The seventies were an unbridled and messy time, when loucheness was a life style born of postwar nihilism and economic decline. If the city was crumbling around you, why not smell like death and sex, entropy and excess? The new formula does not smell like these things. It cannot clear elevators or persist through a night of heavy dancing. It evaporates quickly and smells a little like soap. Still, I bought a bottle recently, because I knew that a new Netflix miniseries about Halston (called, simply, “Halston,”) was coming, and I wanted to turn my viewing experience into a kind of Smell-O-Vision. As it turns out, the synthetic, exasperating reformulation was a perfect match for watching the series.
— Read more in The Freeing Fashion Behind the Halston Saga at The New Yorker.
When I saw the title of this post, I assumed “Death and sex, entropy and excess” was the name of a new perfume. ?
Who launches one scent any more? It’s got to be a line of four, the first in a collection of oh let’s say twenty-six. And then come the flankers.
True!
I got another insight on this phenomenon recently while reading the history of the Swatch.
The Swiss company that developed the Swatch did an initial trial launch in Texas that bombed. The CEO of Bloomingdales immediately gave them some crucial advice:
“You can only turn your watch into a fashion product if you throw half a dozen new collections onto the market every year. Otherwise, you’ll never succeed!”
Ha, makes sense.
“The new formula does not smell like these things” has to be a serious understatement: I remember the original Halston — my older sister wore it in the late ’70s — and it was a take-no-prisoners chypre, thick with oakmoss in a way that hasn’t been done or even possible, for a couple of decades.
I wore it a bit later than that. It was fantastic, and the packaging was so perfect. Glad I have not smelled it in years.
You can still pick up perfume minis of vintage Halston on Ebay for a song. I have two, one is actually a wearable piece of jewelry. Let us not forget Halston Z-14 is a masterpiece and a new bottle is still a treasure worth seeking out.
Good to know!
I loved Z-14 — may seek it out! Thank you!
I found a bottle of the extrait mixed in with a bunch of minis at a perfume kiosk once and I don’t know if it was vintage or what, but I can say that it was excellent. I used it up fast.
What a fiind!
Thank you Robin, the article is full of interesting details. About two years ago I got a pristine full 50ml vintage bottle for £6. No-one was bidding, he is unknown or forgotten in the UK. I adore the perfume, made me fall in love with chypres all over again.
I watched the first episode of the tv series, and if the similarity between it and the fragrance is as close as suggested in the article, the fragrance is waste of time and money. There were some shots of beautiful clothes and fabrics, but the production was, I think, trying to do too much and thereby rendering everything superficial. I won’t watch the rest of the series.