Nuit d'été Joop! 1990 Eau de Toilette

'I got on the phone and called the girls,
said, meet me down at Curly Pearls, for a
Ney, Nah Neh Nah (Ney, Nah Neh Nah)'

1990 - the same year that Joop! released its Nuit d'été - the Belgian band Vaya Con Dios had their first (and biggest) hit with the song 'Nah Neh Nah', which continued to play on the radio well into the 90s - recognizable from the very first chord. In the accompanying music video, lead singer Dani Klein danced towards the camera in a tight variety outfit - stylish girl power and pulsating joy of life long before the Spice Girls and their 'Wannabe' and Carrie Bradshaw in the Magnolia Bakery.

'In my high-heeled shoes and fancy fads
I ran down the stairs, hailed me a cab, going
Ney, Nah Neh Nah (Ney, Nah Neh Nah)'

And like 'Nah Neh Nah', Joop!'s olfactory summer night was one for going out, celebrating, and dancing - sensual, lively, and self-assured. You can still sense the essence of the 80s - the complexity, the richness of its aromas and their exuberant arrangement, its entire oriental opulence - and a soul of honey, vanilla, tonka bean, which adds so much more to the sweetness than current sugary waters do: bitter herbs and spices and heavy resin. And yet, Nuit d'été is not a suffocating, heavy scent.

'When I pushed the door, I saw Eleanor
and Mary-Lou swinging on the floor, going
Ney, Nah Neh Nah (Ney, Nah Neh Nah)'

It was the scent of a new and capricious femininity - Girl's Night Out like in Nah Neh Nah's music video - young and full of life, but not cloyingly sweet or girlish. In all its sweetness and opulence, it is still frivolous and flirtatious - like a wink or a rhythmic hip sway - sexy, perhaps provocative, but never ordinary or cheap. And yet it is probably good that it no longer exists today - because every generation has (and needs) its own Nuit d'été - even if we (or the women of my generation) mourn the loss of our own.

Conclusion, in Dani Klein's unforgettable, powerful voice:
'It was already half past three,
but the night was young and so were we, dancing
Ney, Nah Neh Nah (Ney, Nah Neh Nah)
Oh Lord, did we have a ball,
still singing, walking down that hall, that
Ney, Nah Neh Nah (Ney, Nah Neh Nah)'