Top Notes 
Aldehydes
Bergamot
Green notes
Lemon
Heart Notes 
Hyacinth
Cyclamen
Iris
Jasmine
Lilac
Lily of the valley
Magnolia
Rosemary
Ylang-ylang
Base Notes 
Civet
Musk
Sandalwood
05/26/2023
BrianBuchanan
351 Reviews
BrianBuchanan
4
Platonic Flower
Fleur de Fleurs means Flower of Flowers; an abstract, Platonic Flower perhaps.
It's a floral, but not any one type of flower.
The reality is more prosaic than Platonic; Fleur de Fleurs is an old fashioned bouquet.
One point of reference is the naturalism of Patou's Vacances, a joyful invocation of French meadows in summer; lightness, green, flowers, it's one of the finest Nature Bouquets ever made.
Fleur de Fleurs has a similar flowery feel to Vacances, but there’s more to it than that.
It was launched in the early 1980’s. It’s a bit like Eau de Gucci, and has a soft Ambery feel like Vanderbilt.
However, it’s less like the Rose Chypres of Sinan and the original Armani which now typify the eighties.
FdF also has a powdery softness giving it a demure skin-like quality, which is sometimes dismissed as Old Lady.
And so, comparing it with it’s contemporaries, we can see how FdF is rather safe and backward looking.
FdF is an abstraction, but it's not rigorous like Ernest Beaux' No5; it has no manifesto and nothing to say about how women should - or shouldn’t - smell. Instead, rather than forging ahead into a brave new modernist world, FdF accepts the status quo ante.
In fact, with a grainy pollen and spice texture, Fleur de Fleurs is closer to the salicylates and carnation of l'Air du Temps than it is to the aldehyde fantasy of Chanel.
FdF draws on a combination of flowery meadow and classic feminine floral, and, in the face of more innovative trends, it sticks to the old fashioned, even pre-modern idea of Woman as Porteuse de Fleurs - or a sort of ambulant flower vase.
...
It’s possible to interpret this on a deeper level though. Spray on Fleur de Fleurs, and put on a flowery dress, and instead of the ancient folk image of the Green Man – whose face is made of leaves – we have the woman covered in flowers – both in perfume and print.
An image not unlike Blodeuwedd in the Mabinogion, a mythical being made with flowers of broom, oak, and meadowsweet.
There is something of a twist in the tale however. In the drydown, Fleur de Fleurs develops a quite bitter and dusty side, which undermines any overly-romantic readings.
And so, I want to give Fleur de Fleurs a positive rating.
It may be less classic than l'Air du Temps, have less joie de vivre than Vacances and be less ambitious than Number 5, but it has great appeal none the less.
It's a floral, but not any one type of flower.
The reality is more prosaic than Platonic; Fleur de Fleurs is an old fashioned bouquet.
One point of reference is the naturalism of Patou's Vacances, a joyful invocation of French meadows in summer; lightness, green, flowers, it's one of the finest Nature Bouquets ever made.
Fleur de Fleurs has a similar flowery feel to Vacances, but there’s more to it than that.
It was launched in the early 1980’s. It’s a bit like Eau de Gucci, and has a soft Ambery feel like Vanderbilt.
However, it’s less like the Rose Chypres of Sinan and the original Armani which now typify the eighties.
FdF also has a powdery softness giving it a demure skin-like quality, which is sometimes dismissed as Old Lady.
And so, comparing it with it’s contemporaries, we can see how FdF is rather safe and backward looking.
FdF is an abstraction, but it's not rigorous like Ernest Beaux' No5; it has no manifesto and nothing to say about how women should - or shouldn’t - smell. Instead, rather than forging ahead into a brave new modernist world, FdF accepts the status quo ante.
In fact, with a grainy pollen and spice texture, Fleur de Fleurs is closer to the salicylates and carnation of l'Air du Temps than it is to the aldehyde fantasy of Chanel.
FdF draws on a combination of flowery meadow and classic feminine floral, and, in the face of more innovative trends, it sticks to the old fashioned, even pre-modern idea of Woman as Porteuse de Fleurs - or a sort of ambulant flower vase.
...
It’s possible to interpret this on a deeper level though. Spray on Fleur de Fleurs, and put on a flowery dress, and instead of the ancient folk image of the Green Man – whose face is made of leaves – we have the woman covered in flowers – both in perfume and print.
An image not unlike Blodeuwedd in the Mabinogion, a mythical being made with flowers of broom, oak, and meadowsweet.
There is something of a twist in the tale however. In the drydown, Fleur de Fleurs develops a quite bitter and dusty side, which undermines any overly-romantic readings.
And so, I want to give Fleur de Fleurs a positive rating.
It may be less classic than l'Air du Temps, have less joie de vivre than Vacances and be less ambitious than Number 5, but it has great appeal none the less.
