Posted on 11/06/2021 6:21:17 PM PDT by Drew68
OK, I'm an old Gen X-er.
I recall the Trifecta of 1980s men's colognes: Drakkar Noir, Polo for Men, and Paco Rabanne. Am I missing anything?
My favorite was Drakkar. I practically bathed in the stuff, thinking it would mask my cigarette and weed smoke from my parents (it didn't).
Anyhow, a Twitter person I follow seemed genuinely shocked to pass someone wearing Drakkar. This begs the question. Do scents go out of style?
Hell, I still have a bottle of English Leather some chick gave me in 1976.
Ok. As long as we’re really reaching back on this the one cologne that I had to have as a teen was Jade East. Later I discovered another oldy but goody, British Sterling. But the true scent of the hippie generation was Patchouli oil usually in concentrations sufficient to cover any other hygiene problems.
This lasted until I got married and discovered that any scent that I wore triggered my wife’s migraine headaches. We’ve been scent free including soap, detergents, and body lotions since then.
For me scent can trigger very specific memories and moods, many 50 years old plus. The olfactory input data bank in my head is amazingly intact. It must be located tightly with memory and mood.
Jade East - great on the rocks
Patchouli is still applied to dryer sheets in the laundry at our house. Horny hippie my wife calls it.
My olfactory memory bank was steeped in the aroma of frying bacon.
Old Spice and Hai Karate never go out of style.
I loved to wear Heaven Scent. And Wind Song.
Love Drakkar. Givenchy Gentleman is my very favorite.
I loved to wear Heaven Scent. And Wind Song.
My older cousins wore those!
My big sis wore Charlie.
Do you remember that one?
My mom went through an Yves Saint Laurent phase.
And, my grandmother wore White Shoulders.
You can still get some of these older frangrances at the Vermont Country Store :-)
I think the best come from Italy.
I do remember Charlie - my sister wore that.
I wore Aviance and Norelle.
My mom liked Callandre Paco Rabanne. (I did too, but I couldn’t afford it. She let me spritz on some of hers for senior prom.)
Stopped about 30 years ago. Do not recall why....
Now I live in a warm climate and never notice anyone wearing it.
Same with perfume. Not an island thing I guess.
“For me scent can trigger very specific memories and moods”
So true. In about 1964 I started wearing Cover Girl powder from a brown compact with a mirror. The scent was unique - probably Noxzema. Almost 60 years later when I put on Cover Girl foundation the same scent takes me back to my dad’s car, sneaking on face powder.
And a whiff of Wind Song perfume takes me back to a picnic by a pond one special day.
Snark......
I remember Paco Rabanne...mom had that one, too. I’m trying to remember the one that (it seemed like) all of the moms/aunts wore....it had yellow and white stripes, and was a man’s name. Georgio??
I had an aunt who wore Joy....she told us kids to NOT go near her vanity....especially her perfumes.
Scent might be the most powerful and evocative of our physical senses, even now that we’ve evolved so far.
One of the problems with fragrances today is that some years ago, all the big European perfumers got together and signed some sort of pact to limit their use of certain natural materials.
Many perfumers now just play with ‘molecules’, and the perfumes we wind up with are largely synthetic. My husband and I both had favorite fragrances that have been discontinued over the past ten years; and not apparently because they were unpopular - we regularly see online requests from people who mourn them and want them to be brought back. (Mine was so natural that I couldn’t wear it in the summer - bees and hornets would attack me!)
The fragrances from the Italian monastery Santa Maria Novella are still wonderful. They’ve been compounding scents for hundreds of years.
Sounds like a line out of a novel, or a movie :-)
I have a bottle of White Shoulders on my dresser now. And Joy.
This summer I hugged my cousin’s wife and without thinking said, “Wind Song!” I hadn’t smelled it in decades and had no idea they still made it. I forget where she said she got it but would like to buy some.
I’ve heard of Charlie but never used it.
In college I wore Emeraude sometimes, and then I decided I hated it. Ditto for Youth Dew.
I think my favorite is Ombre Rose, which is no longer made. Blue Grass is my next favorite.
I see you can get Wind Song on Amazon and other places.
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