Tu es sans rival: Maison Parfum Grès

Grès Paris is to some a well-known fragrance house that they delighted in their youth, and to others, a word that they read off a green capped bottle of fragrance in their local chemist. But if you majored in Fashion at University, Grès might be to you the epitome of classic, feminine haute couture. In truth, it is all of the above writ. Grès Paris is a haute couture fashion house whose doors opened during the Second World War in 1942, in Paris, but is now based in Switzerland. While the Maison Parfum Grès is dedicated to producing Grès Paris' heritage perfumes, one of which is the green capped bottle you're most familiar with, Cabotine de Grès. If you are a lover of chypres, perhaps you first heard of Grès Paris when you purchased the iconic Cabochard. Alors, we are not here for a lesson in history. I brought your attention to this perfume house because there is an affordable offering sans rival! Read on if you please.

I've never really been keen on leather fragrances. Perhaps that is because the logic of wanting to smell like the combined smell of tannins, fats & oils, binders and preservatives, was not a dangling carrot to me. I loved the smell of leather handbags, belts and purses, but I could not for the life of me imagine wanting to smell as such. Oh how untutored my thinking was! All that changed when I dived headlong into researching Maison Parfum Grès' then-new collection, Les Signes de Grès, and purchased the affordable fragrance without rival, Fruit de la Créativité.

Fruit de la créativité is not for every perfume lover. Dare I say, no fragrance is, or else there would be a bottle of thingymajik we would all own or be expected to own… a bit like a comprehensive watch collection being seemingly incomplete without a Casio or G-Shock of some sort in it. To me, fruit de la créativité is the best affordable, leather fragrance that is currently on the market. At <£17* online, this fruity, rose, leather delight is one that I have found ways to wear all year round. Oversprayed on my wool coat during the late autumn, winter and early spring months, generously applied on my pulse points during spring and early summer months, and sprayed with a light hand on my summer hats and silk scarves during the summer and early autumn months, this fragrance proves itself to be dynamic, delicious, and intoxicating. There is no growing bored of it... a waft here, a sniff there, it is the star of the collection.

I shall say no more but leave an invitation on the table for you to try it.