Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch
415 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The kiwano strikes first with an almost watery fruitiness, immediately shadowed by a gin-like herbal sharpness that feels botanical and slightly soapy. You're caught between a fruit bowl and a botanical garden, both rendered in synthetic clarity.
Violet leaf's green pepper emerges, clashing pleasantly with Sichuan pepper's numbing spice, whilst the citrus notes flatten into a backing track. The fragrance becomes prickly, almost uncomfortable—less about seduction than sensory surprise, a peppery-herbal interlude that refuses sweetness.
Amber and suede materialise faintly, offering belated warmth and softness, but the fragrance has already faded to a skin scent. What remains is an intimate, barely-there sweetness tinged with the ghost of that peppery heart—almost apologetic in its retreat.
First Instinct Man arrives as a peculiar hybrid—simultaneously a cocktail hour aperitif and a skincare ingredient masquerading as fragrance. Philippe Romano has crafted something aggressively fresh, almost to the point of artificiality, where the kiwano (that spiky, pale green melon) creates a watery, slightly astringent opening that feels more botanical than fruity. The gin tonic accord doesn't settle into a recognisable cocktail; instead, it manifests as a sharp herbal brightness, as if someone has diffused juniper and tonic water through a laboratory filter.
What initially reads as a flirty, summery composition unravels into something more conflicted once the heart notes unfold. Violet leaf—that green, slightly peppery facet rather than sweet violet—collides with Sichuan pepper's tingling, almost numbing spice, creating an uncomfortable prickling sensation that sits uneasily atop the remaining citrus notes. There's a synthetic quality here that the accords substantiate at 64%; it feels like wearing a fragrance designed by algorithm rather than emotion, where every note is calibrated but nothing coheres naturally.
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3.1/5 (731)