Page 86 - Protagonist 108

PROTAGONIST / MEN’S SCENTS

A t the age of 20, I, too, lived in India for a brief into just three families: fougère, orientale and chypre. Fougère,
time. A week in Goa, where my headquarters were the only exclusively male version, means fern, a plant used less
the Oberoi on Bogmalo Beach, where I indulged than the courgette in perfumery. The name comes from the
in every comfort without restraint. Solitude masterpiece by Houbigant, who in 1882 called Fougère Royale
heightens your sensitivity, so a slight detail ended a “jus” whose aromatic, woody notes suggested the idea of wide

up influencing my tastes forever. It wasn’t something I heard open, fragrant spaces, characteristic of the group created with it.

from a guru; I saw it in the restaurant restrooms. Around The secret of Fougére Royale lay in the coumarin of the tonka

the wash basins were two dozen men’s fragrances, including bean which evoked vanilla and dried fruits, along with straw,

all the best sellers of the time. On going to wash his hands, fresh grass and blonde tobacco at greater depth. Fougère can be

the customer could refresh the fragrance he was wearing, or fresh, woody or ambered. Drakkar Noir and English Lavender

attempt to turn the evening around by trying another one. I are fresh, Il Saggio and Pour un Homme are fresh with an

decided that I would offer guests visiting my home the same amber base note, Fougère Royale and Eternity are woody like

possibility, and it was the only resolution I made } Eau Savage, Green Irish tweed, which, however, lies alongside
in my youth which I have stuck to. Choosing from the Leader category. Here we can also identify a

the most common new entries and small niche created by sub-classification termed aromatic, with lavender,
products, I am constantly putting together the Roudnistska, spices or edible herbs such as rosemary, sage and
perfect team, of which you are now seeing the marked a mint (like Acqua Essenziale by Ferragamo) and
latest version. The fragrances are oriented in four turning point other similar fragrances. The oriental family can
directions, as many as there are archetypes of be recognised by its rich, rounded and complex

the male imagination: the Wise Man, the Leader, character. Head and middle notes immediately

the Hero and the Seducer. The Archetypal Waters created by make way for base notes in which balsamic hints, animal

Italian Lorenzo Dante Ferro in conjunction with the cultural essences, resins and fragrant woods take over.

association called “Cavalleresco Ordine dei Guardiani delle T he orientals can be ambery (as with Il Seduttore, The
Nove Porte” (the Knights’ Order of the Guardians of the Nine Seducer) or spicy. Here we can describe a woody sub-
Gates) are vials of bottled inspiration. They are made for those family if noble wood types such as cedar or sandal
wearing them, not for those smelling them. They are not made

to tell our story, but instead to awaken us. The inclinations wood, coniferous wood such as pine or cypress emerge, or

summed up the by Waters have been known since the dawn of forest notes like the warm aroma of patchouli or fresher notes

time. Until 1966, perfumery described a man who was sure of of vetiver. The third and last takes its name from Chypre, a

his own role, at the centre of a stable world. Then came Eau women’s perfume from 1917 in which Coty conjured up Venus,

Sauvage. The essence created by Edmond Roudnistska was starting out in Cyprus, her place of birth. Cyprus is full of cistus,

daring, fast and as uninhibited as Gruau’s drawings, portraying whose flower yields the sweet resin known as labdanum which

a man dressed only in a towel and towelling slippers. From is essential for chypre fragrances and invaluable in amber

that day on, contradiction and discord were no longer taboos, perfumes. So chypres start with citrusy notes which can also

and the masculine accords began to spread into unexplored appear in the head notes of the other families, but here they

territory which was at times ambiguous and often extreme. dominate the initial notes undisputed. After, a flowery middle

For this reason, after identifying the fragrances that provide emerges which blurs into the grand finale of wood, moss and

the most harmonious and up-to-date description of the male lichen, recalling untamed nature. Chypres can be woody

essence, I divided them into traditional and new classics like Eau Sauvage, leathery like l’Eroe (The Hero), fresh like

depending on whether they were invented before or after Chanel Pour Monsieur or citrusy like Acqua di Parma. Some

1966. The synthetic substances generate dead perfumes that consider citrus a separate family, but their need for a more solid

are the same every day and on every skin type; so much so structure makes it is best to consider them as a characteristic of

they are fascinating on first contact and boring a month later. larger families. The same goes for the flowery sub-family, little-

The Archetypal Waters contain quantities and types of natural used in men’s perfumery now, although things might change.

essences for which the business sphere, in the rare cases where As there are three families but four archetypes, the Leader

it actually uses them, commands price tags that compromise has been left out. Technically it is a leathery chypre. It would

the spontaneous relationship between man and fragrance. have been dull if we had described all the perfumes, or the

The ones I have chosen are meant for daily usage. The main reasons why Tzar and Vetiver by Guerlain, for example, sit on

classification is into olfactory families and sub-families, but not opposite sides of the fence in spite of being two woody chypres.

all schools of thought agree on their number and classification. Perfumes speak to everyone, but they only reveal their secrets

So I will just keep to a simple format, dividing the male world close up and to one person at a time. Try listening to them.

The most desirable secret agent, with a licence to kill, of course: Sean Connery sublimely plays the part not just of agent 007
James Bond but also of the classic man. Elegant even when undressed, as shown in the portrait on the
opposite page, in just his towel, on 1st October 1983 at his Marbella house in Spain at the end of filming for “Never Say Never”.

86 PROTAGONIST / N. 108