Parfum D’Hermes and ’80s perfumes

 Parfum D’Hermes

madonna cross - Parfum D'Hermes

You know I can’t ignore this Madonna on a cross with a crown of thorns on her head and a horsewhip in her teeth… Manolo put it best

“Ecce Ho.”

Let me just add, with top tickets selling for $380 a seat, Non Ecce Cheap Ho. And no comments from those of you that spent 12 years conjugating at Our Lady of Perpetual Latin.

It’s just not Friday unless I get to rag on Madonna or Tom Cruise.

New blog by just a delightful, knowledgeable, kind perfume nut, Ina at Aromascope.  Make sure to check out her New to Perfume link on the right side at the top, lots of great links.  It is just wonderful to have more great perfume blogs popping up.

A wonderful friend sent me a little bottle of Parfum D’Hermes, which seems to have been discontinued a while back, but which I had heard good things about forever.  Of course I was anxious to smell it!  Designed in 1984, the same year “Like a Virgin” came out, with notes of cedarwood, bulgarian rose, amber, sandalwood, vetiver spices, vanilla and jasmine.  It goes on soft and a little powdery, so I was thinking right off the bat this is definitely not for me. Me no like powder. Who knows, it may be just that this is an older perfume, but then it comes on in that ’80s strong kind of way, though with Hermes’ more conservative approach, which definitely gives you the time period of its creation if you didn’t know it by now.  I expected this to stay big, like that big hair we all used to have back then —

My hair sure was big.  First I had the Farrah flip in the late ’70s, which I got more or less right (only two pictures that demonstrate this well  — my first wedding picture on the left there, with the white dress and my senior picture above it) and then just big ole short hair with the linebacker shoulder pads (there on the right with the second husband), and we aren’t really going to go into how many times I’ve been married. I’m reformed and am a for-lifer now! And that hair, what a mistake that was. I had tried dying my hair on my own to keep expenses down, and it just got fried, so I had to go crawling to my stylist to please fix it, and we had to cut it all off and make it big, bleached short hair. I kept for the longest time this one jacket from the ’80s because I have a confession to make, I loved and still love shoulder pads.  Every time someone disses them, I think but whyyyyyy?  I’ve always thought of dressing up as a costume drama. Normally my dress is so casual that I’ve been known to run errands in my pajama pants — yes, I’m one of those women, but I have a seriously cute wardrobe of pajama pants and I always stay in the car, and if I’m in an accident, at least I’d be already dressed for the hospital — but back when I used to dress for work and important things, I liked to do it up right.  Admittedly, this was before children, and my fashion sense pretty much washed away in a wistful stream of diapers, play dates, extra pounds and co-op preschool.  Anyway, too many people didn’t understand the big shoulder and gave it a bad name, but done well, it  made your hips look slim, your big hair looked fuller, and your legs just poked out from underneath that mess like the cute little pins they always should have been if you weren’t such a short person. Loved it from a costume drama viewpoint, and I get that it was bad fashion, but costume drama is way more fun than fashion any day of the week. And these pictures were like a hunnert years ago — or 23-25 at least — from the ’70s and ’80s.

Back from that little side road — Parfum d’Hermes is still in its big hair period, and I don’t hate it at all, I actually like it quite a lot, especially for the memories it brings back. For its era, it’s a well-done perfume, but I think Hermes did a better job of the rich floral when they did Hermes 24, Faubourg, but this one has some other things in it you just don’t get in 24, Faubourg. If you’re a fan of Hermes and the ’80s, Parfum D’Hermes is well worth taking a sniff of.  It would be excellent worn out for evening, and you really should tuck a pair of shoulder pads in your jacket for good measure.

What I find interesting is in smelling my way through the Hermes perfume lineup, how it changed. For such a staid, old line, they’ve been very adaptable over a long period of time.

I remember the exact day I knew the big ’80s perfumes were over… when I semlled Lancome Tresor.   I mourned more for my big shoulder pads.  Madonna was big in the ’80s too, kinda fresh,original and fun, dare I say likable?

What perfume do you think Miss Elizabeth Bennet would have worn (please do not confine yourself to what was available in that era) and what cologne should Mr. Darcy have worn?  Yes, it was a Pride and Prejudice weekend, why do you ask?

 And the winner of the Guerlain giveaway from last Friday is… Monica!  Just hit the Contact Us link over there <

 

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