Tiffany for Men Tiffany & Co. 1989 Cologne

...was the slogan for Baldessarini, among others adorned with the iconic visage of Charles Schumann. However, it truly applies to Tiffany for Men, not simply in a hierarchical sense, where a men's fragrance is marketed as an olfactory badge of silverback status in the herd, but rather socioculturally: as a marker of belonging to a specific generation of fragrance wearers (and of course there are overlaps between the two fields). This means it is completely understandable if a man under forty never gets past the opening of Tiffany, but instead screams for the next shower and spends the weekend with a root brush to wash away the trauma of smelling like his always-suited grandfather and the overly affectionate great-aunt. The powdery-soapy intensity of this top note from another era is as exhausting as the semolina wall one must laboriously eat through to reach the land of milk and honey. If an Axe body spray ever tried to smell "sophisticated," this would be about what it would result in.
However, once a man has overcome this 15-30 minute phase, he enters a paradise of classic perfumery art. The powder remains but takes a back seat as spice, wood, and oriental sweet notes unfold: clove, sandalwood, amber notes, tonka. The parallels to fragrances like Creed's Bois du Portugal or even more so New York by de Nicolai are obvious, and the latter also gives another keyword: this is how conservative men of the East Coast upper class smell, who appear in tailored suits or Ivy League style, read the Wall Street Journal, are lifelong Republicans, and despise Donald Trump as a vulgar upstart (he has never forgiven them for not being accepted into the New York elite club, so in that sense he is indeed anti-establishment). In this phase, Tiffany is comparatively calm and discreet, yet still present. It works with the concept of a subtle olfactory aura, not with quick effects, like the current niche style; thus, methodologically it is also conservative/classical. One also misses artistic ambitions here; this is solid craftsmanship in which the artist steps back from the function of the object. All of this leads to Tiffany for Men, on the one hand, appearing so out of touch with the times, like the last representative of paternalistic capitalism, Mr. Grupp from Trigema, in the era of the digital economy. Ironically, however, it works quite well (as does Mr. Grupp's approach): Mr. Tiffany's reserved nobility makes him significantly more adaptable than many of the overloaded perfume battleships of the 80s. Nevertheless, it remains a scent for a specific type of man - one who shops at Ladage & Oelke, will always prefer the FAZ to the world, wears his father's gold watch, and would never dream of flying with something called easyJet.