Maybe you’re mentally packing your hamper for your Memorial Day weekend beach trip and want something frothy but smart and maybe a little humorous to read while you dig your toes into the sand. Something with, oh, a retired jewel thief, Hollywood gossip, martinis, vintage gowns and a dead body. Look no further.
Head Case, the fifth book in my vintage clothing mystery series, has launched…
Some fragrances have a knack for separating the dabbler from the enthusiast. Hermès Calèche is one. If you sprayed a scent strip with Calèche and waved it in front of people at the bus stop, you’d probably get a lot of wrinkled noses, along with comments like “old lady” and “perfume-y,” even among people who like perfume and happily stock their bathroom shelves with Jo Malone and the latest Dior flanker. Calèche is hard to love.
Unless you’re dedicated to perfume, that is. Then, Calèche is Grace Kelly with a French count for a father, a mother whose linen never seems to wrinkle, and an aunt who’s a nun with a penchant for romance novels. The fragrance aficionado might never want to wear Calèche, but it’s irresistible to explore…
Occasionally reviews describe a fragrance as smelling “vintage.” To me, it signals that the fragrance follows the conventions of a classic perfume style, like a floral aldehyde with a musk-sandalwood-vetiver base, or a mossy chypre. Besides that, it often means that a perfume simply isn’t fashionable.
Olympic Orchids Tropic of Capricorn smells vintage, in the animalic, leathery way of Caron Narcisse Noir Extrait. It’s definitely not fashionable, but it has a lot of style. This is a perfume for Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard…
“Manly, yes, but I like it, too.” Anyone remember those old Irish Spring commercials? Perfume aficionados know that “male” and “female” designations serve best simply as markers — like “rose” or “fresh,” for example — on what to expect, not whether the perfume only suits a particular gender. On the traditional male-female fragrance spectrum, Masque Milano Montecristo weighs heavily male in the leather, wood and tobacco manner, right next door to Hermès Bel Ami. Despite my earlier reference to Irish Spring, believe me, Montecristo doesn’t smell anything like soap. But I like it, too.
Montecristo launched in 2013 and was developed by perfumer Delphine Thierry. Its notes include cabreura, ambrette seeds, rum, tobacco leaves, celery seeds, cistus, benzoin, golden stone, styrax gum, gaiac wood, cedar wood and patchouli.
Montecristo opens herbal, musky and almost vinegar-like before relaxing into leather spiked with tobacco, salt, cinnamon and cumin…
I once heard perfumer Thomas Fontaine say he considered orange blossom an American note. (Iris and galbanum were French, he said.) Right away, I thought of bars of soap, brides, and piles of white laundered towels. Is that what Americans are about — cleanliness and innocence? Maybe I should have asked, is that what orange blossom is about?
Orange blossom is a lot more expressive than its association with laundry detergent would have you believe. Here are five relatively easy-to-find1 orange blossom-centered fragrances that explore a variety of non-Girl Scout takes on the note:
Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger: Fleurs d’Oranger kicks off as bright and juicy as a grove of Florida Ambersweets in spring…