Norell Norell 1968 Perfume

Norell is thoroughly American, authentically so, as real as it gets. After all, its creator was also a true American. Born in 1900 in Noblesville, Indiana, as Norman David Levinson, with great artistic ambitions from a young age, Norman Norell became one of the best and most famous American designers. In the 1920s, he worked for Paramount Pictures, outfitting various film projects with Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and other silent film stars. Later, he worked for Ziegfeld Folies on Broadway.

From 1928 to 1941, he was employed by Hattie Carnegie, received a total of 5 Coty Fashion Awards, and was the founder and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Norman Norell passed away in 1972. In 2000, he was honored by the city of New York - along with other famous American designers - in the form of bronze plaques with images of each designer embedded in the ground on 7th Avenue, the so-called "Fashion Walk of Fame."

Like many of his designer colleagues, Norman Norell released perfumes under his name, but only two: Norell and Norell II.

The first fragrance - Norell - is a classic chypre, but of a special kind. I own the EdP and have tested it multiple times before I was able to describe this wonderful scent.

Its dark leaf-green top note almost comes across as fougere, but it is not. It is a deep, dark, aromatic green that requires no citrus freshness or similar notes to tune into its true scent.

Norell takes time to unfold its green-tinged, yet wonderfully floral heart. Spices give it a certain warmth, but otherwise leave the space to the flowers. Individually, no flowers can be identified; the heart note is simply too perfectly composed. It is so exceptionally beautiful that it is a true pleasure to sniff it again and again.

In the base, the chypre is rounded off by dark, mossy, warm notes - again, no sweetness, yet an unparalleled softness and elegance that nestles the flowers into the moss-soft base.

Norell is definitely not a scent for testing in a perfume store, as the herbal, dark green top note might rather deter than entice. Nothing here is designed superficially, nothing is left to chance.

Only when the heart note develops does Norell become a fragrance to fall in love with. For me, there is an absolute risk of addiction here, and although I wouldn't wear Norell every day, it is a scent for the winter half of the year, for the darker, cooler season, which it can brighten up with its soft, warm scent accords.

This American certainly possesses the level of French perfume houses!