With powerful cat aromas circulating the house after a stray tom cat got in the house last night, I wondered what more beautiful feline perfume could possibly counteract it (at least silently, in my mind).
This heartless, but rather beautiful scent might be it.
Jean Louis Scherrer was a former ballet dancer turned Dior-trained couturier who designed fabulously expensive dresses for wives of the super-rich in the late seventies and early eighties, known especially for his lavish fur and animal prints and in the perfume world for his signature, eponymous scent – Scherrer. A dense, no-nonsense green chypre, there is something very wide eyed and cruel about this perfume, something that irks you inwardly like a cake with not quite enough sugar.
My own bottle is a vintage edition of the eau de parfum and it it occupies its own contemptuous, disdainful space. While the base of the scent is nonchalantly carnal – deeply so and quite androgynous (cedar, oakmoss – lots of it – civet, vetiver and musk with just a soupcon of vanilla, creating a powerful, almost muscular, feline sexuality), carnation and cassia purr hypnotically over fresh, indolic gardenia in the astringent, floral centre while up top – so green and conceited as to be almost unapproachable – galbanum, crushed leaves, violet, and a sharp, aldehydic hyacinth leap forth from the perfume with a clawed, unrestrained alacrity.
Unlike other green chypres – think Miss Dior, Alliage, Private Collection and the like – there is no vulnerability in Scherrer. This creature is beautiful and sensual, yes – but also insinuating, disturbing.
All photos of our own cat, Mori – which means ‘forest’ in Japanese – because that’s where we discovered her as a two week old kitten, emerging wet and frightened and with a badly injured leg from the woodland undergrowth….
I once owned Scherrer (it was already vintage by then) and wish I had held on to it. Mori is a really beautiful cat (and knows how to pose for a photo)!
I’m telling you she is the queen of the neighbourhood.
Well, I am not exactly heartless, but Scherrer is my all-time favorite chypre, and in my top 5 of all perfumes, ever. I adore it! Great review, you have captured its essence perfectly. I discovered it in the mid-Eighties and I have never been without it since, though I now have to troll eBay for the vintage. The reformulation is fine, but I gotta have my oakmoss overdose.
There is no finer compliment to be told I have captured a perfume’s essence. I find that cannot be done with notes alone, but I have to delve into nonsense and the ether to try and do it. I always found with this that there was a lack, somehow, but that that lack was inherent to its perfection (if you know what I mean). I am sure it smells fantastic on you.
I am not familiar with Scherrer but i had to comment on your cat Mori. What a beautiful creature – such lovely photos, especially the one of her stretched out at length on the sofa. Amazing!
Thank you but like every star, it’s the angle and the pose that count. She doesn’t always look like that! (but I also love that stretched out look – so extravangely hilarious).
I love your cat photos. “Something that irks you inwardly like a cake with not quite enough sugar.” I love that. It’s why I could never feel comfortable in Silence or Norell, Ivoire et al. I could admire them but never get close to them. I must need the touch of vulnerability – Miss Dior was a staple once – the original one, of course. I think I have a small sample of Schererville somewhere. I need to dig it out.
I posted but it seems to have disappeared and I’m too lazy to do it again. You do convey the essence of a fragrance with your words. It is a gift. I enjoy reading your reviews.
Thankyou.
Funny, I am contemplating buying a bottle of this right now.
New or vintage ?
I haven’t smelled the new version but would like to.
I think it’s the newer version, someone gifted me a mini bottle
Enjoy – it is super stylish
Wearing it yesterday I found it softer than in this original review – warm and engaging
Love your description of Jean Louis Scherrer. Really got into it and can imagine it perfectly. I can see just how you find it so. I’ve known it for years. Exactly because of the elements you describe so well, I couldn’t, as a woman in her early twenties, quite bridge the distance between us enough to buy a bottle, although I grabbed the tester bottle every single time I went to the fragrance counter. It fascinated me. I loved it but somehow it was beyond me. Of course now I’ve got a good stash. It just took time and experience.
When is its appropriate occasion?
Anytime you need a good set of claws.
!