Guerlain is more gorgeous, Chanel more chic, but there are few – if any – perfume houses more elegant than Hermès.
While I have long enjoyed the beauteous Calèche, it was only a couple of years ago that I first came to know that perfume’s similarly well bred, but slightly more brooding and restless alter ego, Amazone, both of which, in eau de toilette (pictured) I picked up in Tokyo after an exquisite afternoon of listening to koto music at a 1920’s tea house in Shibamata.
Amazone’s uniqueness, I have come to understand, having encountered this DELIGHTFUL vintage eau de parfum lent to me by Z ( a warmer, mossier pulse that goes straighter to the heart, the edt greener and matinal) and which I will admit I wore a little of today for a much needed day out with the D in the big city, is in its curious tension between a coy green chamois vetiver and oakmoss; sandalwood; contained; sweet, aldehydic – with a hint of the outdoors and a blushing rebellion; freshened with a piercing hyacinth, galbanum, jonquil, black currant bud and narcissus; questioningly erotic and refined.
The Black Narcissus 
I used to have the original Amazone and loved it. I no longer have it but wish I did. I still have the original Caleche in many forms, including the pure parfum and wear it often. (I even have a couple back-up bottles of the eau de parfum and eau de toilette. Back in the day I bought back-up bottles of scents that I loved.)
I REALLY enjoyed it today. I don’t think it really suits me – it was lovely just lingering on a sweater though in the winter sunlight – Caleche is clearer and more legible (there is something a little opaque about Amazone, but today I understood the theme and emotions of it much better having smelled the edp, which is really lovely). If only we had back up bottles galore of all the perfumes that we love. I know I wasn’t too keen on the current version of this perfume when I smelled it at Hermes. It just didn’t work for me modernized – something smelled off and sickly or metallic or something, in the same way that I can’t endure current Vol De Nuit. Some perfumes MUST be vintage.
My two most favourite vintage Hermès! I loved and wore them both in my 20’s.
My agent wears or wore Amazone as well in her twenties ( she now likes Goutal Ninfeo Mio).
In some bottles I have came across there has been something too hoary/ fuzzy at the centre that didn’t reel me in ( it is the strangely sweet, dense woody heart of tie perfume that is its main characteristic, offset by that delightful greenness)
Finally I know I have now ‘got’ it. As I say, truly elegant.