By Dane
It's only natural for a great perfume to influence others...sometimes the interpretations even improve on the original (Kenzo Flower), but mostly not (Flowerbomb). The great Feminite du Bois has influenced many in the field of women's woody-florals, but could it have been the product of top-down design itself?
The original Femme was composed by the great Edmond Roudnitska in 1944. In 1989, Olivier Cresp "re-tooled" the classic and gave us what we have today. I haven't smelled the original (boo hoo), but if I was to guess, I'd say Femme, whether current or vintage, greatly influenced Christophe Sheldrake and/or Pierre Bourdon to create Serge Lutens' masterful work.
Femme opens with a blast of dark purple fruit - raisin, plum, prune, along with some woods and spices. Cumin is evident, as is the raspy cedar found in Feminite du Bois. I was expecting things to hum along from there, but soon a sweet, tangy peach joins the others and the shade shifts from dusky aubergine to fluorescent orange.
Similarities could also be made at this point to Kenzo's Jungle (released in 1996) with it's stewed fruit and spice recipe, and maybe even to my favourite, Mitsouko (although not nearly as clever). Frankly, the comparisons could go on forever, which leads me to believe that Femme may be a favourite among perfumers.
Being a fan of all the comparitive fragrances listed above, how could I not like Femme? Well, the truth is that I don't love it. I have much like for it, but I find it a bit cloying, a bit chemical, and overall a bit too much. Still worth trying, and perhaps even more so in the EDP. Better yet, go for Bois de Violette, which took the already beautiful genre in a slightly different direction and found a balance yet to be matched.
Year: 1989
Perfumer: Olivier Cresp
Notes: Bergamot, Peach, Plum, Jasmine Absolute, Bulgarian Rose, Cumin, Oakmoss Absolute, Patchouli, Vanilla
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