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Djedi - The early 20th Century- The Fragrance Golden Age?

post #1 of 6
10/27/06 at 10:51am
Thread Starter 
This article make me think that we were all born long after the best time in history to be a fragrance fan. The glory days of Guerlain and Coty(?!?!), better ingredients, etc. All the things that have been written here and there on Basenotes came together when I read this review of Guerlain's Djedi and REALLY made me feel like we're just dancing over scraps these days, even with the niches.

Who here can eleaborate more on these glory days? I sort of feel like I've got a wardrobe full of Kool-Aid now....

http://pdawwg.com/blog/index.php/200...us-que-jamais/

An excerpt:

Quote:
English is a rich language, but I think I need a whole new vocabulary to describe this fragrance. My initial reaction was: this is unlike anything else I have ever smelled. Djedi is not leather, but it is chypre, of the darkest, most severe sort. It is almost mineral in its austerity. It is the smell of hot gravel in the sun. It is the smell of smoke in the desert. It is the smell of dry sticks, or sunbleached bones, baking in the sand. There is a short burst of vetiver, but it is carried past you on a hot wind (the Santana) from a long way off, and it does nothing to relieve your thirst. There is a brief, bizarre twist (as Marina noted) where it smells faintly like some sort of spiced savory food.


All this sits on a base of some mysterious reverse-image Guerlain – someone took the powder, civet and oakmoss of the Guerlinade and beamed it back and forth a few times to an alternate universe that contained nothing sweet at all. By the following day (this is some tenacious juice) it has regained a little of the vetiver and the quite attractive savory-spice-stew smell (cinnamon, cardamom, maybe nutmeg or clove?) on top of the moon rocks.

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post #2 of 6
10/27/06 at 11:20am
Thanks for the link. I agree that a lot of modern fragrances are a mere shadow of what has been created in the past.

Here is an interesting link too....

http://www.toutenparfum.com/site_en.html
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post #3 of 6
10/27/06 at 2:08pm
Djedi is one I've always wanted to try.

I'm of two minds about the "best time in history" part. Part of me wants to agree, since there are certain ingredients that are not available anymore, but part of me thinks that fondness for an age gone past can be based upon remembering the best of that age. 100 years from now, there will be someone lamenting the (possibly) long dead charms of Cherqui, while forgetting that Paris Hilton anything ever even existed.
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post #4 of 6
10/28/06 at 12:42am
The golden age in frags isnt that long ago.

I mean the 80's isnt soooo distant is it????
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post #5 of 6
10/28/06 at 1:49am
Ten years ago there was a re-edition of this beauty: only 1410 were made and it was an exact copy of the old version, Baccarat bottle and all. I got some samples and a friend in the US finished the last drops of it some months ago. It still smelled wonderful (a sample, after all these years!)
But there is still hope for those who want to buy this: I purchased a perfect bottle on eBay in August from a French man, who seems to have connections with Guerlain. I have still not opened the bottle because it also has a sentimental value for me (and because it costs a kings ransom). But I know the seller still has another bottle because he contacted me some days ago.
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post #6 of 6
10/28/06 at 2:16am
We are all forgetting something...
Yes, all those fragrances were very beautiful but they were very expensive. Fragrances were for the rich only, even to afford Coty you had to be from higher middle class.
The lower classes could only afford cheap traditional eau de cologne or fragrances with the worst synthetic ingredients (maybe even toxic), as those ingredients were quite new and still unrefined by then. I doubt those cheapies were of any interest as none survived.

I think our forum (technology withstanding) couldn't have existed during that time because most of us wouldn't have access to those beauties.
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