paco rabanne: 3 posts

Patricia revisits Calandre, a metallic green rose with a chypre heart.

Nineteen Sixty-Nine was a year in which I watched with my family as men walked on the moon, 400,000 young people crammed into the then little known town of Woodstock, NY for a three-day music festival, and the hugely unpopular war in Vietnam was escalating with accompanying casualties on both sides of the conflict. In the same year, Calandre, an avant-garde perfume from the fashion house of Paco Rabanne and created by nose Michel Hy, was launched.

Betty Friedan, considered by some to be the mother of the second wave of American feminism, had written The Feminine Mystique in 1963, and the sixties provided fertile ground for the growing Women’s Movement. Perfume styles were changing as well. The more formal floral style of the fifties and early sixties was giving way to more modern interpretations.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

I always think of Paco Rabanne as a rather avant-garde perfume house, with audacious fragrances like Calandre and Black XS making up its portfolio. In fact, it seemed surprising that it did not offer any commercial fruity-florals (Ultraviolet notwithstanding, since it is closer to the oriental family.) Well, Lady Million fits that gap for sure—it is a quintessentially commercial composition that hits all of the marks: a big fruity-berry note, a petally, white floral accord and a gourmand musky-woody base.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

If Armani Privé Ambre Soie could be envisioned as richer, sharper, deeper, with the warmth of amber underscored by darkly resinous woods, Paco Rabanne Black XS might be the fragrance that such contemplation would paint. Ambre Soie veils its amber with a gourmand, chocolate-like layer that softens the final result, while Black XS sets amber in a frame that highlights its balsamic woods and fine tobacco facets.

Created by Olivier Cresp in 2005, Black XS is another fragrance from the recent masculine releases (like Dior Homme with iris and cocoa and Lanvin Arpège Pour Homme with jasmine and iris) that blends the gender line effortlessly. In the niche market, its gender specification might well be unisex. …

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