Sous Le Vent (1933)
by Guerlain

A mélange of green-herbal, spicy, and floral notes on a chypre ground. This is a very fresh, green chypre, however; a substitution of tonka bean for the patchouli in the base could easily have made it a green fougère, and the lavender does lend it that sort of character. This comes only in eau de toilette formulation, which is rather appropriate to the freshness of the composition.

Sous le Vent is French for "leeward," as in the name of the Leeward Islands. The scent was supposedly composed by Jacques Guerlain for Josephine Baker in 1933, for her to apply after her dance performances, which were the rage of Paris at that time.

How can I describe it? Fresh, green, neither feminine nor masculine. I feel it would be suitable for day or night; it would probably be better in warm daytime weather than in cool. It is a bit light-handed to expect much development from it apart from moderate to warm temperature.

The scent starts out very fresh: dry citrus, herbal, very green. It becomes subtly floral, the jasmine not predominating (but boosting the floral side of the lavender a bit); the carnation contributes a clove-like spicy freshness, and then there's some more green. The iris comes on as slightly earthy, but never chases away the green theme; and the woody notes give it depth and a certain roundness. It has a decent sillage and longevity for an EdT, but doesn't project especially far. Hug someone, though, and they're sure to notice.

Overall, the fragrance is refreshing and energizing; I would call it generally subtle (by which I *don't* mean weak); the subtlety is in the art of the blend and in the balance.

If you can find it, it's well worth a sniff. ...Oh, and in spite of Josephine Baker, not just for women...

Sous le Vent is an astringent chypre with agressive notes of oakmoss, galbanum and bitter citrus that I personally found to be very off-putting. It is a close twin to Coty's Chypre de Coty. In either case, I cannot imagine wanting to smell like these perfumes! Thankfully, Sous le Vent calms down eventually - I had to make myself resist scrubbing it off (ah - what I do in the name of perfume reviewing!). However, as chypres go, I easily prefer Chanel's 31 rue Cambon, Dior's Diorella, Hermes' Caleche or even Piguet's Bandit over Guerlain's Sous le Vent.

I received a sample of this from a Guerlain boutique, and I wasn't expecting to like it. However, this is definitely a feminine perfume a man shouldn't have trouble pulling off. Green turning to floral it develops nicely. It is pretty close to the skin though, but it's worth a try if you find a sample.

Sous le Vent was created by Jacques Guerlain in 1933 for Josephine Baker, the famous dancer who often performed nude except for her brief banana skirt and strode the streets of Paris with a pet leopard. Like Mitsouko, Sous le Vent is a chypre and was designed for the new self-confident, short-haired and trouser-clad 'garçonnes' of Paris. Josephine Baker was from St. Louis, but the French always seemed to forget she was American, instead associating her with the tropicália of her costumes, and Guerlain named this scent 'Sous le Vent' after the exotic Leeward Isles of the lesser Antilles. Though it's a chypre, it's much less spicy, potent and animalic than Mitsouko, and also greener, fresher, cleaner and more subtle. It didn't survive as one of the classics, but it was recreated in 2006 by Jean Paul Guerlain as part of Guerlain's 'Il Etait Une Fois'-collection, in which old fragrances from the Guerlain repertoire are being revived in limited editions. The bottle for this collection is a cylindrical apothecary bottle with a wide mouth and a crystal stopper. The label's black disc with its gold lettering recalls the metal-logo on the old Vol de Nuit and Sous le Vent bottles.

Family: chypre, green. Top notes: bergamot, lavender, tarragon. Middle notes: jasmine, carnation, green notes. Base notes: iris, foresty notes, woody notes.

Scent notes for Sous le Vent: bergamot, basil, lavender, tarragon, carnation, jasmine, oakmoss, iris, woods, patchouli.
This is a green, dusky, dry chypre. The bottle (most attractively packaged, in a splash format) has a pamphlet with a charming story of how this was created for the noted Parisian cabaret dancer, Josephine Baker. I read a blog which called this “the best feminine to be worn by men” and I agree (as do other reviewers below). There is nothing here to keep a man from wearing it. SLV has some floral sweetness (a bit of powdery iris, some fragrant jasmine) but it is in essence quite dry, even austere. Great... my favorite style! It is very interesting and quite complex. Initially it is very green, even a bit sharp, and it makes an incredible first impression. Then, it develops interesting wood notes, further complexified by patchouli... the result is a slight roasted-coffee effect. This is excellent, really different stuff. It is only available at Guerlain boutiques and it a limited edition sort of thing, so good luck finding it!

A great, go-anywhere scent. Very energizing. It has the old-fashioned appeal of the other guerlain classics. It's my very favourite 'green' fragrance.