Eau de Givenchy
There’s a breeze blowing through Eau de Givenchy, a 2018 reimagining of the 1980s classic. This new version gets you with its fizzy bergamot, lemon, orange and grapefruit opening, before veering into a greenish bitter almond and then resting on a featherbed of pillowy floral hedione, the synthetic jasmine note created in 1958 and reputed to drive women wild with desire (Steve McQueen allegedly wore it.)
Before you leave your house and head out into the world, spray Eau de Givenchy into the air in front of you and walk through it, so your clothes are imbued with the scent. You will feel like you hung your laundry to dry in the garden of Hubert de Givenchy’s Saint Jean de Cap Ferrat mansion, le Clos Fiorentina.
I know it’s highly unlikely that a mansion would have laundry lines near its gardens, and the staff probably wouldn’t even let us anywhere near them. But such details interfere with my fantasy, so I ignore them. And if now is not the time to construct elaborate parallel universe fantasy lives, then I don’t know when is.
Clos Fiorentina, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat