The new Douglas Hannant perfume is the first scent Robert Piguet has done for an outside designer, and their first new (as opposed to relaunched) fragrance since the 1960s. It seems a logical extension for the Piguet house, given that by now, they’ve probably done all they can do with the brand’s back catalog — since 2006, they’ve relaunched Baghari, Visa, Cravache, Futur and Calypso, and while they’ve generally done a great job (no small thanks to perfumer Aurelien Guichard), to my mind, not one of those can touch what they already had on the market, namely Fracas and Bandit.

Douglas Hannant, for those of you who had never heard of him — I hadn’t — is known as a socialite’s designer; he’s been described as a “go-to-guy for trust-fund babies, fashionable philanthropists and other Palm Beach/Park Avenue regulars”.¹ When I read that, I imagined something heavy and expensive-smelling, like David Yurman Eau de Parfum, but what they’ve come up with instead is a modern version of Fracas:

This is a fresher, younger Fracas. We stayed with the same floral base and added pear to cut the sweetness at the top. —Frederic Anderson, Douglas Hannant’s partner²

The only surprise there, I suppose, is that Piguet hadn’t done such a thing already…

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