This one hasn't been discussed for a while, and as I wore it as my scent of the day, I thought it'd be fun to open it up for discussion.
A little background, particularly for the newbs. Feeling Man, by Jil Sander, a German designer, released this scent in the late 80s. It is the prototype of the "legendary" fragrances, fragrances that have been long discontinued and then achieved cult/legendary status.
The making of a legend goes something like this. A house releases a fragrance that is met with a collective yawn by the general public. Yet a dedicated group of fragrance afficiados, who know a great scent when they smell one, (like us!), recognized it as a scent superior to the mass marketed drek and flipped over it. Due to poor sales, it was yanked, but the legend grew. That's how bottles like this one end up on ebay for $300., such as the current situation for the unspeakable Red by Giorgio. When people exclaim, "How could they have discontinued (fill in the blank)?", Feeling Man is generally the number one mentioned.
My personal feeling as to why this one tanked sales-wise is that it had the bad luck to be released one year after Cool Water, which, with the equally unspeakable Issey Miyake, practically invented the "fresh/acquatic/marine" craze that pollutes the department store fragrance offerings to this day. Feeling Man is anything BUT one of those scents. It also had the balls not to be a generic fragrance that was created to appeal to as many people as possible. Presumably.
When I first joined Basenotes and started collecting in earnest, (funny how they happened at the same time!), this was one of the first hard to find, discontinued scents I made a mission to track down. I bought a full, new bottle from another B'notes member, (naturally) from overseas, for a pretty penny. My first reaction to it was not that hot. I started a thread a few months ago entitled "Scents You Wanted to Love, but..." and, whatever I used as an example in that thread, Feeling Man is really Exhibit A.
My first reaction was not good, but I attributed it to notion that perhaps my nose was not sophisicated enough to appreciate such a complex scent. I mean, after all, check out the reviews in the Directory. Of all of the Holy Grail discontinued scents, this one reigns supreme.
I've had my bottle for two years and have worn it all of once. Today, on a whim, I tried it again, and it pains me to admit that I just...don't...get it. The two words I think of are THICK and DENSE. Suffocating comes to mind also. Not thick and dense like some classic Guerlains or Patou PH which I love, but more like an unpleasant, weird, tenacious combination of notes that I just could not wait to sandblast off of me.
To its credit it has two characteristics that I look for in a fragrance--uniqueness and longetivity, and this one has both in spades. I applied two modest blasts at 7:00am this morning. It lasted 10 hours during the working day, a work out, a sauna, a shower, another sauna and then another shower. I could still smell it. Uniqueness wise, I can't even think of anything it smells like. Unfortunately, it lacks the most important characteristic I look for in a scent--it has to smell good!
By the by, the also discontinued Background by Jil Sander is, in my opinion, a far superior scent.
So that's my experience with this legendary scent. What's yours? And yes, my full 3.4 oz full bottle is up for swap.
A little background, particularly for the newbs. Feeling Man, by Jil Sander, a German designer, released this scent in the late 80s. It is the prototype of the "legendary" fragrances, fragrances that have been long discontinued and then achieved cult/legendary status.
The making of a legend goes something like this. A house releases a fragrance that is met with a collective yawn by the general public. Yet a dedicated group of fragrance afficiados, who know a great scent when they smell one, (like us!), recognized it as a scent superior to the mass marketed drek and flipped over it. Due to poor sales, it was yanked, but the legend grew. That's how bottles like this one end up on ebay for $300., such as the current situation for the unspeakable Red by Giorgio. When people exclaim, "How could they have discontinued (fill in the blank)?", Feeling Man is generally the number one mentioned.
My personal feeling as to why this one tanked sales-wise is that it had the bad luck to be released one year after Cool Water, which, with the equally unspeakable Issey Miyake, practically invented the "fresh/acquatic/marine" craze that pollutes the department store fragrance offerings to this day. Feeling Man is anything BUT one of those scents. It also had the balls not to be a generic fragrance that was created to appeal to as many people as possible. Presumably.
When I first joined Basenotes and started collecting in earnest, (funny how they happened at the same time!), this was one of the first hard to find, discontinued scents I made a mission to track down. I bought a full, new bottle from another B'notes member, (naturally) from overseas, for a pretty penny. My first reaction to it was not that hot. I started a thread a few months ago entitled "Scents You Wanted to Love, but..." and, whatever I used as an example in that thread, Feeling Man is really Exhibit A.
My first reaction was not good, but I attributed it to notion that perhaps my nose was not sophisicated enough to appreciate such a complex scent. I mean, after all, check out the reviews in the Directory. Of all of the Holy Grail discontinued scents, this one reigns supreme.
I've had my bottle for two years and have worn it all of once. Today, on a whim, I tried it again, and it pains me to admit that I just...don't...get it. The two words I think of are THICK and DENSE. Suffocating comes to mind also. Not thick and dense like some classic Guerlains or Patou PH which I love, but more like an unpleasant, weird, tenacious combination of notes that I just could not wait to sandblast off of me.
To its credit it has two characteristics that I look for in a fragrance--uniqueness and longetivity, and this one has both in spades. I applied two modest blasts at 7:00am this morning. It lasted 10 hours during the working day, a work out, a sauna, a shower, another sauna and then another shower. I could still smell it. Uniqueness wise, I can't even think of anything it smells like. Unfortunately, it lacks the most important characteristic I look for in a scent--it has to smell good!
By the by, the also discontinued Background by Jil Sander is, in my opinion, a far superior scent.
So that's my experience with this legendary scent. What's yours? And yes, my full 3.4 oz full bottle is up for swap.
