Smitty Coty 1976

Oh yes, I remember Smitty! It was fun and you could expect catching a Wiff of it at the local discos. It was nothing like Halston-the real disco perfume, yet it was fun. One thing I recall, was had a LOUD, sassy chypre character that stood out in a smoke-filled disco and it was cheaply purchased at pharmacies all over the place. Coty was much more accessible at that time.

Like disco, it lasted just a few years. If you ever did the "Hustle" or the "Bump", you would remember Smitty. Modern people have no pop dances, much less that much oakmoss in current fragrance formulas. Ah, the good old days.

I took the plunge and purchased a 4.0 oz splash. It has not gone off. It is every bit as large as I remember. This is nothing like Charlie. It's very clean and bright. It's a big red rose in full bloom with some carnation and jasmine embellished with the classic green notes that were so popular in the 1970s-galbanum, patchouli, vetiver and oakmoss on amber and sandalwood. Coty spared no expense on this production. It lasts until your next shower.

Chypre fuss, furious drumming in the background, conjuring up strangely quirky images, a lady in a green artist's coat, a gentleman in a pale lilac trench coat, wearing a top hat. A yacht is bobbing in the forest lake and runs aground.
Long, gray-green moss threads hang down from fog-enshrouded trees.
The "castaways" come ashore, wading through green algae at the bank.
A tri-colored climbing rose ascends an old wall and blooms in violet, red, and dark turquoise... The lady sheds her faux fur and follows the tendrils of ivy that are sprawling around an ancient brick house. The gentleman in the top hat finds the entrance.
Inside, green patterned wallpaper and purple furniture.
"Cozy?" he asks as she enters. "Surreal"... she replies, lounging on the violet sofa, sniffing at her wrist.
"Smitty!" she says casually.... "we're exactly where we need to be"...

It’s truly incredible how fashion fades, yet I feel like it was just yesterday.

Mid-eighties, the gloomy communism rages.
In my school, a new biology teacher. White large collar, shoulder pads, and a hairstyle reminiscent of Alf (a stiff little fringe over the forehead).
She sits at a long desk, I hate biology, but the new young and attractive teacher smells heavenly. The scent is so white, clean, soft, creamy, feminine, and strong! Somehow I find out (maybe from the teacher) that the fragrance is called Smitty! From then on, I dream of Smitty!

A few years later, as a student in the early nineties, I receive the fragrance from my mom for Christmas.
Smitty is already packaged differently, communism is over, I can travel anywhere, and my country is finally free. I start discovering new perfumes, and they are now available not only in PeWeX, the special stores where you can only pay with dollars, but also in newly emerging perfumeries with Western fragrances! Smitty is no longer such a dream... there are now many others.

Yet after so many years, the memory of this wonderful scent remains strong.

Today I have the sample on my wrist. I didn’t expect so much oakmoss, and the woody nuances; the scent is strong, I also sense the soft creamy note, only... you can also feel the years, that the fragrance springs from the chypre family, the same family, Smitty is almost masculine, quite old-fashioned, and not so white, rather gray-green. The warm soft note I still find today - aldehydes, it is very pleasant, not too strong, but the perfume feels too vintage, too old-fashioned, a tad too masculine even.

Smitty matched the white large collars, the padded jackets, U2, Madonna, and George Michael, pink lipstick, blue eyeshadow, plastic jewelry, and definitely a large earring in the ear.

Today Smitty doesn’t suit me, fashion changes, times do too...

I met the teacher some time ago in a store: still an attractive, well-groomed woman in her mid-fifties; in Poland, there are Sephoras, Douglas, and countless other stores everywhere, I can still travel, only now I have a bit of fear about traveling...

Smitty is no longer available and... my mom isn’t either.
But the memory of this scent, of those times, and those people remains.

Sillage and longevity are very, very good!

I will keep the sample; it belongs in the box with my little treasures of memories :)