Hot Couture has hovered at the edge of my fragrance consciousness for years, but I never actually tried it until this week, when I was feeling particularly jaded at Sephora and I wanted to smell something, anything that wasn’t a summer limited edition. And now that I think about it, I’m intrigued by this fragrance: Hot Couture has been holding its place in the Givenchy section of perfume counters since it was released in 2000, yet it’s such a “neither/nor” fragrance for the venerable brand. It’s neither Audrey Hepburn nor Liv Tyler, neither the classic L’Interdit nor the blandly trendy Very Irresistible and all its flankers. Nor is it one of Givenchy’s coming-on-strong fragrances of the 1990s, like Amarige or Organza. What is it?
In Givenchy’s official (and generally meaningless) description, “Hot Couture is a creation that aims to complement the woman’s body, combining sensuality and glamour with refinement and elegance. Very fashionable, the Hot Couture woman is both refined and original, slightly provocative and so uniquely charismatic.” Hot Couture is “a voluptuous fragrance with spicy and woody notes (raspberry nectar, magnolia, amber-vetiver),” and it was developed by perfumers Alberto Morillas and Jacques Cavallier. Its title is a silly pun on “haute couture,” and the bottle’s logo looks like a dressmaker’s label with pinked edges. (The older bottle design bore an image resembling a vintage fashion sketch.)
Hot Couture starts off with a flashy burst of raspberry and vanilla…
