Discontinued Frags

I was just thinking about the travesty of discontinuation. Well, brooding over it is a more apt description. And I've made it a new mission of mine to seek out the stuff that was recently discontinued but still a few mouse clicks and keystrokes away.

Some may deny it, but there is a competitive undercurrent running parallel to the sense of community and togetherness here. Once the cash flow starts to slow for a fragrance, the corporation will either cut its losses or release its new blockbuster hopeful waiting in the wings, or (as seems to be the case) both. It's starting to look like they favor the streamlining approach over expanding while keeping one foot planted in the terra firma of nostalgia.

So rarity does become the name of the game however hesitantly for the hardcore fragrance whores like myself, and there's nothing wrong with having some forethought and planning for a day when your faves may not be around, or at least as easy to find.

Thank you for the reminder by the way - I have got to try the Banana Republic ones before they vanish, as I should have done with Gap Grass. Oh to be young and dumb again.

Hilfiger Athletics was great, a lost summer classic that zigs where other zagged. So many aquatics (some good I admit), but they made a long-lasting citrus with gloriously synthetic grapefruit and woods. Green Jeans also, Havana left us far too soon, and the original Calvin from 1981 is flat-out awesome.

But the most egregious breach of consumer trust happens when they completely scrap a classic and reinvent it, not even bothering to salvage a sliver of its genius in the reformulation. Not having smelled the original Guerlain Vetiver I can't speak to how the reissue compares to the 1961 version, though I do like it (hate the bottle though, doesn't travel as well).

For me Dunhill '34 being replaced (as far as I can tell) with a younger, ostensibly hipper version of itself qualifies as the "what the f*ck?!" moment of recent fragrance history.

I've bitched enough...I'll shut up now and let someone else have at it:-D