When I learned that Thierry Mugler had passed away on January 23, I recalled my feelings the first time a sales associate offered me a sniff of the original Angel in a department store: I was intrigued, repelled, and somewhat confused. I didn’t buy it, but it lingered in my mind and I kept trying it whenever I spotted that distinctive pale blue star bottle on my shopping rounds.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I’d occasionally smell Angel on another woman on the subway, at a party, at a professional conference, and sometimes it smelled glorious on someone else, and sometimes it didn’t, but it was always distinctive and not quite like any other perfume…until so many new fragrances suddenly started to smell more and more like Angel, and they just kept proliferating at every tier, from high-end niche to mainstream, not to mention candles and body products.

I did eventually purchase a small bottle of Angel…

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