I’d be willing to bet White Shoulders was the first perfume many of you owned — or pilfered a drop or two from your mom’s dresser. From the fragrance’s tawny pink packaging with a gold cameo and font that looks like it was lifted from a Marquess’s personal letter, to its lush white floral scent, for me White Shoulders was the ne plus ultra of class.
And then I grew up. To be fair, White Shoulders changed a lot over the years, too. When it was first released in 1945, the Hartnell perfume company, later renamed Evyan Perfumes, manufactured it. Over the years, White Shoulders bounced from Evyan to Elizabeth Arden to Parfums International, and now to a company I’ve never heard of, Idea Fragrances Company. No doubt its formula changed and cheapened. Now for six dollars and a trip to Walmart, you can own a quarter ounce of White Shoulders Parfum…