Givenchy
Givenchy
93 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The bergamot and grapefruit snap awake with citrus vigour, bright and slightly tart, before green notes immediately assert themselves, rendering the top as more herbal-citrus than purely fruity. This is a deliberately cool greeting, almost bracing on the skin.
As the citrus softens (rather than fades), honeysuckle and jasmine bloom into focus, introducing a floralcy that feels neither heady nor delicate—instead occupying an interesting middle ground where white flowers have a subtle greenness to them. The green accord strengthens here, suggesting crushed stems and foliage rather than perfumed florals.
Sandalwood begins its slow emergence, offering creamy warmth that catches and diffuses what remains of the jasmine into something powdery and pale. By the fourth hour, you're left with little more than a woody-floral skin scent—intimate, nearly abstract, barely there.
Eau de Givenchy (1980) is a fragrance that arrives without fanfare, a whispered introduction rather than a declaration. Daniel Molière has crafted something deceptively simple: a green-floral cologne that prioritises transparency and restraint over impact. The bergamot-grapefruit opening feels almost austere, cutting through with the brightness of a citrus grove at dawn, before honeysuckle and jasmine emerge to soften the edges. What makes this scent compelling is the interplay between its floral heart and that persistent green undercurrent—this isn't honeysuckle rendered as sweet perfume-shop softness, but rather honeysuckle as caught between freshly cut grass and morning dew, with jasmine adding an almost indolic shadow that prevents saccharine drift.
The sandalwood base provides structure, though it remains a whisper rather than an anchor. This is fragrance as negative space: what you don't smell becomes part of the composition. The woody-floral balance feels inherently modernist for 1980, predating the maximalist fragrances that would dominate that decade.
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3.3/5 (208)