The recent A. I. derived ‘pros and cons’ of perfumes listed on Fragrantica, where robots scavenge the troves of impassioned comments from reviewers below a particular fragrance’s notes, picking out the most conspicuous positive and negative comments about any particular perfume and then listing them side by side, are useful – and frequently hilarious. Giò, a very heady peach-jasmine-mandarin-tuberose-orange blossom spiced floral amber: solarized, powerful, beautiful in many ways, but also sickening for many people – the kind of over-ornate pleasure/ attention seeker whose perfume sucks up every molecule in the room – is described as being ‘throat grabbing’ and ‘overpowering’ ‘for some’, and as smelling like ‘rancid butter’ and ‘dated eighties smell’ for many others (the positives do include a ‘seamless blending of notes’ and a ‘deep, creamy base’.
I personally have found myself over the years secretly craving a bottle of Giò (pronounced ‘jyoh‘ with a short o sound like ‘shot’, not gee-yo, although a sales woman once sneeringly corrected my pronunciation in a department store in the centre of Birmingham - I just about managed to refrain from telling her I had just graduated from Cambridge University in Italian), simply because in many ways it is the zenith, or nadir, depending on your viewpoint, of the slightly base, insensitive, trumpeting orange blossom tuberose that either signifies a slightly delirious glamour doll who doesn’t care how much space she takes up in the room, or else a blazing drag queen (Burning Bush would definitely consider it in the spring).
Extraordinarily sexy in some ways, with the right dosage, Giò can be devastating: a real entrance-maker. Too much, just one spray too far – I would recommend no more than one, personally – and you will have witnesses clutching their oesphaguses in distress or breaking out in blotches and hives.
With its generosity of notes :
– detractors should remember who created this light-glinting gem of flirtful flamboyance - the genius Francoise Caron (Balenciaga Michelle, another femme femme coconut tuberose – Ombre Rose, the first two Kenzos… this woman sure knows how to build a man-killer floral). With Giò’s predecessors including such alluring sultresses as Givenchy Ysatis, its descendants Guerlain Mahora and Francoise Caron’s own Fleur D’Oranger 27 for Le Labo, this sort of scent is definitely only for the brave; for those who want to explode in citrus-licked summer flowers with lots of bare skin showing: the accompanying film made by none other than the great David Lynch (do you think he even smelled the perfume?)
In my view, this was a completely unconnected, non fragrance-adjacent ad, that attempted to inject some much needed mystery into all the proceedings of Armani’s first eponymous release (Giò is his nickname) in order to make it cooler than it actually was: the perfume is just too happy and exuberant and relaxed to be seen as convincingly ‘impenetrable’ in any way (there is very little ‘mystique’ in the blend ….you know this kind of person, typecast from the offset). Who is Giò? Giò is Giò.
Despite being long discontinued, the perfume’s main theme was later rather cleverly absorbed into the marine tea summer breeze that became Acqua Di Giò (1995), which had traces of all the flowers of the first perfume but none of the sickliness, and this one was much more popular commercially. The Aqua variant was then totally overshadowed, of course, by the men’s equivalent, a pour homme, released a couple of years later, which became one of the biggest blockbusters of all time and is still popular globally, although I personally – while understanding its cleverness of structure – never could remotely stand it.
No, give me the original Giò anyday. I was so excited to find a perfectly intact bottle the other day for next to nothing: I had been waiting a long time to score one. Sometimes I crave such oblivious ebullience (and so do many others, seemingly: the non throat grabbing faction in the comments section on Fragrantica seem to adore it and are desperate for it to come back): bottles like the one I found for ＄6 go for eight hundred dollars on eBay now, I was flabbergasted to see) Clearly sometimes, understatement is simply not always the order of the day.
Does anyone else love / hate / remember Armani Giò?
I do not remember Armani Gio, but I did find that I still had a bottle of Aqua di Gio when I digging through my cache of long forgotten perfumes. It smells a little off, but perhaps it is salvageable.
I mean it smells irreparably mid 90
‘s now, like L’Eau Par Kenzo or something, but sometimes these scents can still work in the right mood and weather.
Not sure if I made Giò’s acquaintance either, but I do remember really liking Acqua di Giò on others as a teen. I tried it again in a store a few years ago and the magic had faded.
Yes I have noticed that as well. The first versions were beautifully fresh and aqua foamy; they lost something in reformulation
I preferred Gio’s competitor, the original Dolce & Gabbana, now referred to as “Red Cap”. Both were released in the same year, both were lush & everything including the kitchen sink fragrances.
Back then my plastic peaches came via Tresor too.
I like the style of Gio but never bought it
I was OBSESSED with the redcapped D and G. I wanted to drink it I loved it so much. Been tempered with though. Now no way near as opulent.
Tresor too; she’s a bit domestic, but you have got to love her.
https://theblacknarcissus.com/2012/11/05/beautiful-poisons-four-perfumes-from-the-early-90s/
I have worn & owned all of these plus Tresor. I still have a vintage PdT of Red Cap.
I don’t know what happened to my bottle of Allure. When a new person joined our team she wore “Chanel & only Chanel”. Her work choice was Allure.
She was a real piece of work. Whispered like Marilyn with laryngitis to get attention but didn’t manage her work well & was snide to those she considered inferior but never publicly.
She wrecked Allure for me even though it was my dumb grab
The only thing I remember about Giò is that glorious pronunciation correction story.
!
Usually I am not QUITE that snobby I don’t think but it was the same day that someone actually corrected my Balmain to Bal-MOYN – in a thick brummy accent – that turned me into an inner Maggie Smith
I was going to say, Gio is like the Italian version of Ysatis.
Beautiful, (verging on bombastic) but too heavily ambered for my taste and South Asian weather.
Oh god yes – people would balk. But I am glad someone remembers it well and also likes it: honestly, the bottle I have got is getting a LOT of sniffing and attention. I have some on a sweat shirt and I am absolutely loving it. JUST hitting the mark between bombshell and bombastic: it’s all in the dosage!
Like anything, you have to have the chemistry to make it “happen”.
Absolutely. Some women could be ridiculously seductive in this number, others a bit trashy and overdone.
I remember this. Who did we know that wore it? This sent a real pang of nostalgia. The film is…. quaint! Would love to smell it again x
I don’t know if anyone we know did wear this one – it almost seems to big and bold to have ever been worn by ANYONE.
And yet it is rather gorgeous, and I think that in the correct tiny quantity, you would also enjoy it on other people as well.
At least it isn’t chock full of fake patchouli, oud and vanilla, like all the vomella vilenesses nowadays.
It was my favourite perfume!!! Then it got discontinued 🙁
I now use Jean Paul Gaultier Classique and love it…almost as much
A similar glammed up orange blossom vein ..
I love that style
Does jpg classique smell the same as gio de Giorgio Armani?
No !
Jpg is powdery orange blossom : Gio is piercing tuberose.
This was my signature scent of my youth (literally a single “dab” though as it didn’t come in an atomiser bottle!) and I’ve never found anything close – has anyone got any suggestions?
I’ve been wearing Nero Absolute (Cavalli) for years now but it’s not the same!
Gio is Gio – accept no substitute !
Oh my, I bathed in this scent in my teens. I still have a bottle that I managed to get my hands on a few years back. I have used and loved it sparingly because I don’t want it to finish. I never knew people found it throat grabbing. All my friends back then wanted to have it as well. We spritzed away generously. And still if I wear it I will get compliments. It’s only now that I have noticed that it clings on to me like a beast. It still lingers on my wrist the next day and the projection and sillage are amazing. Completely different from Gio, I switched to https://www.fragrantica.nl/parfum/Gucci/Gucci-Eau-de-Parfum-684.html Also a beast and also discontinued. I think after that I tried a bunch of nice one-offs to finally land on Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Coco noir and Chance for years. But those just don’t make the same impact. They do not last on me. I do not care at all for any of the Mugler scents e.g. In my hunt for more power I turned to Portrait of a lady, Frederic Malle. It’s lovely but not the signature scent as Gio used to be for me. Oh the nostalgia…
Coco Mademoiselle ?
Pah !
Gio is so much more sensual !
That goes without saying! I was caught in the mainstream of liking everything Chanel. I am cured now. But open to sensual perfume tips 😉
I just bought a bottle on ebay. Let’s see how it goes. This was my favorite back in the 90’s. I have a 200+ perfume collection and I always come back to snif this one, but, unfortunately, it was recently stolen (it was basically an empty bottle!).
I am in hospital right now and just THINKING about Gio right now really brightens my mind !
Glad you got another bottle (stolen ?!!)
Might have to put some on when I get home
I loved Gio so much. I wore it in my teens and it worked for me. I’ve never found another fragrance I like as much as Gio, although Nicole Miller was a runner up for a long time. Now I wear Lancome’s La Vie Est Belle, but I don’t feel good about it. I’d love suggestions if anybody has them!
I personally detest the latter, but understand how you might have gravitated towards it