I dutifully doused myself in the stuff, triggering an immediate assault on my own sensitive nasal passages. I hated it, but it was too late. Upon my return to the dinner table, my dad told me that I smelled like his mother, who’s 80, terrifyingly bitter, and smokes two packs of Virginia Slims a day. Not the best look.
— Rachel Krause writes about her changing attitude towards Chanel No. 5 in An Unironic Ode to ‘Old Lady’ Perfumes—and Why They’re Worth a Try at StyleCaster.
Yikes. Given what experiments I did when I was twelve, I think the poor author got off easy with washable spritzes of perfume!
But it’s interesting how everyone forgets old ladies were once young ladies, and these perfumes we call ‘old lady scents’ were once the cutting edge ‘young ladies scents’. One day, Flowerbomb will be considered an old lady scent!
SO true!
Hmm. That article actually kinda annoyed me. The term ‘old lady perfume’ always manages to get my hackles up, but still. Is Fracas really an old lady perfume?! And she writes like No5 and Eau Premiere are the same thing. Maybe Im just tired and grumpy but still, whatevs.
Gets my hackles up too, but I’ve sort of given up. Young ladies don’t seem to have nice feelings towards old ladies, what can you do?
And yes, Eau Premiere, that is not at all the same.
Occasionally there are long discussions about the term “old lady” on the Makeupalley fragrance board and as a rather old lady myself, I’m really not offended by it. As a young person I gave no thought to becoming an old person, that’s just how youth is, and why it’s always somewhat of a shock to find that first gray hair, first wrinkle, or to run into someone you graduated high school with and wonder where his hair went.
I went to college with people 15 years ago and I am wondering where the hair went with some- and just why is my middle so soft, did this happen overnight?….!
I fully recognise that old-fashioned perfumes exist, and there are many of those that I dislike or choose not to wear because I feel they just don’t suit me or my lifestyle. And my mum is now a pensioner and probably considered an ‘old woman’ to many who wears Sensuous Noir and Isabella Rosellini Manifesto- neither which I consider to be ‘old lady perfumes’. Maybe I have just become a perfume snob, but I do think that I have a pretty good understanding of perfumes- what exists, what types exist, the history of, etc. What offended me was more the seeming ignorance of the writer in her lack of understanding of perfumery. I know she’s fully entitled to write her article based on her own experiences, as she did, but it just seemed to perpetrate an ignorance of the topic imo.
I think that for this author if it was made before the OOs it qualifies as an ‘old lady perfume’. Meh.
As I said above, one day Flowerbomb and Pink Sugar will be considered an ‘old lady perfume’!
Was she paid for writing that?
Nice photo of Iris Apfel, though.
I do not know anything about StyleCaster so no idea.
well …. I am an old lady then !!! Though I can do 91 kg deadlifts at the gym .
What is the term old lady .it is a sign of how far society has fallen that it is common place to use this derogatory term . How bad is it for perfumes to get older and for the women who wear them … to age ..how dare we age at all .
The girlie in the article better stick to her Pink Sugar.
Suddenly, I’ve become a big fan of Luca Turin’s writing…at least he knows his subject ( and wouldn’t patronise the reader with an ‘unironic ode’). Off to try some old feminist pefumes…