A repeat of a poll we did back in 2009. Name any or all of the following:
1. A man's fragrance that can easily be borrowed by women.
2. A woman's fragrance that can easily be borrowed by men.
3. Layering combinations you use to tilt a fragrance's "gender" in the opposite direction.
Or, just tell us anything you want about gender and fragrance.
What is the scent of a man? For most of us—especially those born in the ’70s and ’80s—our first thought is likely to be a clean yet spicy eau, the whiff we got a noseful of when we hugged our fathers or kissed junior high school boys: Brut, Polo, Drakkar Noir…fragrances evocative of muscles, clean sheets, stiff drinks. In those days, to paraphrase an Aerosmith song, dudes may have sometimes looked like ladies, but they certainly weren’t okay with smelling like them.
— April Long writes about fragrance and gender in Men's Fragrance Trend: Unisex Appeal at Elle.
At least twice a week on my way to work, I pass a man on the street who is wearing Guerlain Mitsouko. This guy is Asian, young, dressed in “Seattle style” (baggy jeans and a sensible coat and backpack). I want to say “hi” and let him know I like Mitsouko too, but since it’s always 5:30 a.m. when I smell him, I keep quiet. (It would be weird to strike up a conversation about perfume on a dark street with a stranger — at the crack of dawn, especially with the implication: ‘you smell good’ hanging in the air.)
Since I’ve been writing for Now Smell This, LOTS of men have written me wondering why I’m “prejudiced” against men wearing women’s perfumes. I was surprised at this “interpretation” of my articles. Do I sometimes imply men’s colognes are for men and women’s perfumes are for women?
Men who wear “feminine” scents come in many ‘types.’ There’s the natural, confident man who wears what he likes, be it Drakkar Noir or Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Then there’s the exhibitionist/militant who drenches himself in, say, Fracas — and if you don’t ask about his scent, he’ll start flailing his arms and rearranging his scarf (better to disperse the heavy aroma in your direction) and if that fails to elicit a comment, he offers: “Do you like my perfume? It’s Fracas by Robert Piguet…it’s for WOMEN but I love it so….” (Yes, the dialogue is stilted, but often, so is he.) Some men have told me they wear women’s perfumes “at home”…afraid people will get the ‘wrong impression’ if they wear rose-y, tuberose-y scents in public. Then, there are men who do wear women’s perfumes in public, but in miniscule quantity (“a drop only for me to smell”). There’s nothing wrong with any of these “types” and I’ve fallen into all categories except No. 2. (well…perhaps even category No. 2 in my salad days).
One misconception about men who wear women’s perfumes: they’re gay. I’ve known many straight men who wear women’s perfumes…
LIKE the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter books, the bottles and cans telegraph how a boy can sort and identify himself. Old Spice advertisements for its Swagger line featured the rap star LL Cool J as a nerd in school, then being transformed into his fabulousness by you-know-what. Anthony’s Body Essentials are available in Energy, Strength, Spirit and Courage. Abercrombie & Fitch’s popular cologne: Fierce.
— From Masculinity in a Spray Can at the New York Times, with thanks to March for the link!
Halloween afternoon, the ten-year-old neighbor boy came by looking to borrow a wig. He had decided to dress as a girl for a Halloween party. His parents, who give out organic apples to trick-or-treaters and keep their own chickens, don’t have much use for high heels or lipstick. My house is a relative haven of girliness. While I didn’t have a wig to give the boy, I filled a bag with clip-on earrings, rhinestones, a sequined cardigan, a pair of gold slides, and a tube of Revlon Temptress.
My hand paused at a bottle of Yardley Red Roses Eau de Cologne. “Perfume?” I asked and unscrewed the top for him to smell. “Uh, I guess it’s o.k.,” he said. I knew his response translated as “no way I’m wearing that”, so I didn’t push it. But it led me to wonder, what makes a good feminine fragrance for a man?
As is true for many women, I’ve been wearing masculines almost as long as I’ve worn perfume. But I don’t have many men in my life who wear scent at all, let alone fragrances marketed to women…