![\"Cyprus](\"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cyprus-s.jpg\")
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Many people recoil at a whiff of an old school chypre. A chypre\u2019s citrus-oakmoss-labdanum-patchouli signature doesn\u2019t pander and can be downright off-putting for the inexperienced. Grand chypres are so old fashioned. They rarely seduce you with mouthwatering berries and Orange Crush-like fruit. They don\u2019t flaunt their sexiness with blatant oriental notes. They waft fusty oak moss. I get it. I understand all the repugnance. And I love old school chypres just the same.<\/p>\n
When I say \u201cold school chypre,\u201d I mean a big chypre, a chypre that doesn\u2019t hide its identity under woody musk. Some of the classic old school chypres, besides Rochas Femme<\/a> and Guerlain Mitsouko<\/a> (perhaps the benchmarks), are Christian Dior Miss Dior<\/a> (now called Miss Dior Classic), Acqua di Parma Profumo, Chanel Cristalle<\/a>, Herm\u00e8s Cal\u00e8che<\/a>, Niki de Saint Phalle<\/a>, Nina Ricci Fille d\u2019Eve<\/a> and Balmain Miss Balmain, to name a few. As different as they are from each other, smell a few of these fragrances side by side, and you\u2019ll understand their connection.<\/p>\n Also, a handful of new perfumes qualify in my mind as old school chypres, too. Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Ch\u00e9ri par Camille<\/a>, Aedes + Molinard Histoire de Chypre<\/a>, Vero Profumo Onda<\/a> and Hiram Green Shangri La<\/a> all fly the grand old chypre flag proudly.<\/p>\n I adore these fragrances for many reasons. First, they don\u2019t try to make you love them. They\u2019re jolie laide perfumes that don\u2019t need to be pretty, because they\u2019re all-get-out chic. I think of the interchange in the movie Get Shorty<\/em><\/a> (sorry, I should know if this is in the Elmore Leonard novel that inspired the film), where John Travolta\u2019s character, a mobster named Chili, buys a Prius. One of the other gangsters sneers and says, \u201cA Prius. Aren\u2019t they slow?\u201d Chili responds, \u201cI guess they\u2019ll just have to wait for me.\u201d That attitude is pure chypre.<\/p>\n Also, to me chypres signal glamour. I know this is more in my head than in my nose, but isn\u2019t that part of perfume\u2019s attraction? When I think of a chypre, I picture Marlene Dietrich stubbing out a cigarette in a black and white movie. Chypres smell of an era when Lauren Bacall whistled and spies didn\u2019t use smart phones. Things were simple, and yet complicated. This might be a personal weakness, though \u2014 I love me a 1930s crystal cocktail glass and a tattered dressing gown.<\/p>\n Chypres challenge me. Most fragrances today aim to please immediately with juicy top notes. \u201cBuy me!\u201d they say. \u201cDon\u2019t I make your mouth water?\u201d The flip side of these floozy scents is that they bore within half an hour. A chypre doesn\u2019t play that game. A chypre gives you something to ponder all day long \u2014 at least, the good ones do \u2014 as they unfurl and tap at your imagination.<\/p>\n An old school chypre likely smells mossy and piquant at a distance, but chewy and woody and full of heart up close. It\u2019s complex. Now, with years of smelling perfume behind me, I appreciate a chypre\u2019s complexity, just as experience has engendered a love of oysters, Wagner and crazy tartan mixes. Sure, the first time I smelled Miss Dior it baffled me. How could this fragrance still be on the market? Now I have enough vintage Miss Dior stashed away to poach eggs in it all month.<\/p>\n Do you like old school chypres? If you do, which are your favorites?<\/p>\n Note: top image shows Cyprus (and in the insert, Lemnos) from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n Read the rest of this article »<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people recoil at a whiff of an old school chypre. A chypre\u2019s citrus-oakmoss-labdanum-patchouli signature doesn\u2019t pander and can be downright off-putting for the inexperienced. Grand chypres are so old fashioned. They rarely seduce you with mouthwatering berries and Orange Crush-like fruit. They don\u2019t flaunt their sexiness with blatant oriental notes. They waft fusty oak moss. I get it. I understand all the repugnance. And I love old school chypres just the same.<\/p>\n When I say \u201cold school chypre,\u201d I mean a big chypre, a chypre that doesn\u2019t hide its identity under woody musk. Some of the classic old school chypres, besides Rochas Femme<\/a> and Guerlain Mitsouko<\/a> (perhaps the benchmarks), are Christian Dior Miss Dior<\/a> (now called Miss Dior Classic), Acqua di Parma Profumo, Chanel Cristalle<\/a>, Herm\u00e8s Cal\u00e8che<\/a>, Niki de Saint Phalle<\/a>, Nina Ricci Fille d\u2019Eve<\/a> and Balmain Miss Balmain, to name a few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[56],"class_list":{"0":"post-124432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-perfume-talk","7":"tag-classic-chypre","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related...<\/h2>\n
Balenciaga Cialenga ~ fragrance review, with an aside on green chypres<\/a><\/div>Dior-Dior by Christian Dior ~ fragrance review<\/a><\/div>Three Fierce Green Chypres: Sisley Eau du Soir, Parfumerie Generale Corps et Ames, and Niki de Saint Phalle<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n