Windjammer (1968)
by Avon

Avon had begun appealing to men in earnest by the 60's with it's "Avon for Men!" sub-label (something they would drop later), but during this period some of their earliest and most memorable colognes for guys came to pass. Some of these are admittedly almost unwearable in the modern day, and others were mostly play-it-by-the-numbers staple scents, but Windjammer (1968) is one that really stood out from the crowd and is among Avon's finest from the period. Windjammer took a nautical theme in much the same way the previous year's Wild Country (1967) embraced the American West, but unlike Canoe (1936) or Old Spice (1937), it wasn't a powdery barbershop fougère or rich and complex oriental with nautical themes slapped on, but rather a scent that actually tried to smell like the theme it presented, in much the same way Wild Country evoked the aesthetic of cowboys and cattle drives. It's sails-covered bottle and brass ring cap speak volumes before you even take a whiff of the stuff, and once it gets on skin, it lives up to it's promise, but in it's own quirky Avon way. The most interesting thing of all about this scent is the fact that it pretty much nails the aesthetics of a modern-day aquatic scent, but without the dihydromyrcenol that those fragrances need to exist, and without any salty marine notes or aqueous flowers. It takes the citrus, pine, and pepper route to that freshness, a la Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet (1902), or Pino Silvestri (1955) but adds mint and is less dry and more rounded than those simplistic creations.

Windjammer contains no watery accords, no seaweed, yet it does well to bring the feeling of fresh air through lifted sails, and polished teak shining in the midday sun. The scent is basically a fougère, with some serious tonka and moss fixatives in the base, but has those really unusual minty and peppery accords floating through it, and a combination of cardamom, lavender, geranium, and muguet that carefully construct a fresh aura, with a dollop of smoky vetiver. Windjammer doesn't smell a damn thing -like- water in the way the later aquatics could, as once again, the chemistry didn't yet exist. What Windjammer does instead is just suggest the lifestyle of sailing through it's composition, and is subsequently a little more open to interpretation for it. The rarefied and antique lemon, pepper, and pine triad is most interesting in this, but this is light years more complex than anything such as the aforementioned Pino Silvestre or Penhaligon's scents, with the pepper and pine becoming just a member of the ensemble once the lemon burns off with lingering mint, and the moss/vetiver/tonka take over. The pepper must not be in the base because it doesn't get louder in time with the dry down as with most things that have it, but rather just mixes more and more with the tonka and vetiver the longer it sits on skin until it muddles together into something aromatic and not oceanic at all; it's like the stuff starts on sea and ends at the dock, captain's pipe in hand.

I really like this scent, and feel it probably deserves a relaunch more than anything else from Avon in that decade (save maybe the ultra-classy Tribute), as it is just that right combination of niche design and modern appeal (people still love nautical themes and barbershop smells). I'm sure modern IFRA-compliant reformulation would take some toll on what I'm smelling now due to the moss, but a lighter and more synthetic version of this couldn't hurt with enough base retooling as this goes on like Blenheim Bouquet and finishes like a much-lighter Jacomo de Jacomo (1980), so anyone into stuff like The Art of Shaving sells would be all over this. Avon would experiment again with a "fresh" men's fragrance in 1975, releasing Everest, which is uncannily close to a contemporary aquatic despite still using conventional 70's materials. Finding a bottle of this is gonna be hard because it is one of the more popular vintage Avon fragrances (for good reason) and unlike Wild Country, doesn't continue to walk the earth en masse like a zombie army due to over-production. If you like pepper, but want something a bit darker and more sophisticated, this might be your ticket, but it's still classic Avon so expect EdC longevity. I'd also say this is more casual/work scent than romantic or formal, just because of it's minty feel. A forgotten and unsung classic!