Dries Van Noten 2022 collection, Louis Vuitton City Of Stars, Roos & Roos Pale Blue Eyes reviews

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Except that sometimes, you know perfectly well what you’ve got while you’ve got it, which is why you miss it as much as you do when you haven’t got it any more. A case in point is the fragrance Frederic Malle released back in 2013 in collaboration with Dries Van Noten: a glorious piece of work which deserved far more acclaim than it received. It is no longer with us. And as part of Puig’s acquisition of the DVN brand, we have, in its place, a range of 10 (or is it 12?) new compositions. I reviewed them over on YouTube the other day, together with a few other releases. Here’s a link: Dries Van Noten 2022 perfumes, Louis Vuitton City Of Stars, Roos & Roos Pale Blue Eyes reviews.

I suspect I may be moved to write at greater length about the Van Noten range in the weeks to come. But for the sake of tying up the loose ends left dangling at the end of the broadcast, I should mention that Rosa Carnivora (Daphne Bugey) remains pleasant and decidedly uncarnivorous all the way through. Indeed, given its non-predatory nature, it probably should have been called Rosa Vegetariana. With its strange, chilled, mint-and-iris opening, Neon Garden (Fanny Bal) starts off like a vision of a greenhouse tended by C3P0. But then Darth Vader comes along and spoils things with a light saber emanating woody ambers. Soie Malaquais (Marie Salamagne) and Fleur Du Mal (Quentin Bisch) remain the most interesting of the bunch: the former successfully maintains a curious contrast between tart fruit, roses and nuts from top to base, while the latter turns into a brow-furrowing, suavely dangerous leather as it dispenses with the peachy osmanthus note of its first act.

Louis Vuitton City Of Stars (Jacques Cavallier) is a difficult-to-place addition to the brand’s ‘light’ range. As an attempt to create a nocturnal cologne, it isn’t devoid of interest: the link between the citruses at the top and the stickier tiare note in the mid-section is intriguing. But it’s difficult not to read the whole as rather muddled and heavy-handed. This is the sort of thing that requires a gentler, Aqua-Allegoria-style approach. And I’m not sure LV have quite pulled it off here.

Finally, I was pleased to be able to give some air time to Dominique Ropion‘s Pale Blue Eyes for Roos & Roos. A delightful return to his Dune for Dior, it takes the green amber idea and makes it less melancholy through the addition of a tuberose facet. Optimism cutting through sorrow. Seek it out before it disappears.

Persolaise

[Samples provided by the brands.]

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