That worry aside, I am well on the way to loving No. 5 in parfum, though I need to be in the right mood. I’m not yet sure about the EDT. I loved Miss Dior Original from the beginning though, again, I wonder if it’s a ghost.

In 1925, the year of his great successes, he opened a shop in Monte-Carlo, which he frequented for its casino. In Deauville, Cannes and Biarritz, seaside resorts where one had to be seen, he sold bathrobes and swimwear made to measure, marked with his initials: "JP". Jean Patou participated in the emergence of the iconic French "je ne sais quoi" movement that has left a lasting mark on French style. Joy was different from the previous Patou perfumes. First of all, unlike all the precious releases from the house, this bottle was very simple, austere and geometric, much in sync with the Art Deco style, and following the footsteps of the hit of Chanel Nº5. Second, the composition was for all women, more universal and not directed at a specific skin color or a particular event. It was a simple name, but very meaningful for everyone, everywhere. Joy was also jumping in the floral rose-jasmine trend initiated with Chanel Nº5, but whereas Chanel's take depended on artificiality and illusions, Patou's approach was mainly about naturalness and tradition. All these, with the exception of Le Sien, were re-released during the 1980s (under the name Ma Collection), and were available until recently, all in a 50ml Eau de Toilette Spray, 75ml Eau de Toilette bottle, and 30ml pure perfume bottle, each with a unique art deco box. A Jean Patou silk scarf, printed in a pattern complementing that of the box was included with the pure perfume. Joy remains the world's second best-selling scent (the first is Chanel No. 5), Joy was created by Henri Alméras for Patou at the height of the Great Depression (1935) for Patou's former clients who could no longer afford his haute couture clothing line.The sillage from my Joy extrait will fill a room in nothing flat, and it’s rich and heavy without being sweet and syrupy. I prefer this kind of classic vintage composition to contemporary mainstream frags that are ultra-sweet and high-calorie, but thin and shrill (not to mention overtly synthetic) at the same time. Marc Bohan, born in 1926, made his debut with Jean Patou at the age of 18. He left the couture house to better find himself as the artistic director. He kept the legend alive from 1954 to 1957. He moved on to serve as the head of creation at the Dior house for the following thirty years. And is it too late for Shalimar and Joy? I tried to buy 15ml of Shalimar parfum just last week, but the saleslady couldn’t understand parfum versus EDP, and then tried to sell me a gift set with 15ml of the EDT, and when she finally understood (“Oh, the little bottle!”) she couldn’t find one, and in the end I took it as a sort of sign and gave up. Now I dither again. Like much art, some fragrances — especially the complex classics — take time to appreciate fully. At first, you might even find them off-putting. But as you spend time with each fragrance, you begin to appreciate its peculiar nature, its singular beauty. That describes how I’ve felt about the perfumes I’m calling the Big Five.

In the 1920s, women were breaking the mould with their wardrobe, and Jean Patou was at their side. He proposed a whole new way to experience garments and the idea of leisure and relaxation. Freedom, in short.... Jean Patou shared romances with Louise Brooks and members of the European aristocracy but never married anyone. Joy is composed primarily of a combination of jasmine and rose; 10,000 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses are required to create 30ml of the parfum, contributing to its high retail price. [4] Joy also contains other flowers such as ylang ylang, champak, and tuberose. Given its many ingredients, Joy does not smell like a specific flower. According to Luca Turin, "the whole point of its formula was to achieve the platonic idea of a flower, not one particular earthly manifestation." I tried Miss Dior and Mitsouko very early in my perfume mania – I’ve always liked perfume, but it started getting seriously crazy six or seven years ago. I tried lots of things I’d read about here, and it took me a while to get my nose around some of them. Parts of 1000 recall the cool elegance of No 5 and Calèche, and you get lulled into thinking that it will just cruise along on the same note. But then the beige trench coat of aldehydes and flowers slides off, and you discover that 1000 wears a flower child outfit of patchouli, Indian incense and sandalwood. I’ve been wearing 1000 on and off for the past 5 years, and this part still comes as a surprise. If you like animalic notes, you’ll also be in for a treat, because 1000 has lashings of animalic musk to round out its drydown.

Author

Joy" was voted "Scent of the Century" by the public at the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards in 2000, beating its rival " Chanel No. 5". [10]