Coty Chypre EDT (From the Chateau Collection)
Introduced in 1986 - Feminine
Notes: While I could find no formal listing of notes, I did find some notes from various souces that I could piece together - citrus, raspberry, jasmine, woods, labdanum and styrax
In 1986, Coty released three discontinued scents in a set called The Chateau Collection. This collection of old favorites was comprised up of La Rose Jacqueminot, Chypre and Muse which was rechristened as Les Muses.
A wonderful advertisement packed inside the box reads:
The Chateau Collection - Now Every Woman Can Have a French Accent! $5.00 for all three, regularly $11.25. La Rose Jacqueminot, Chypre and Les Muses. It's so easy. All it takes is a little dab of the right fragrance in the right places.
Lesson One: How to Flirt: Fascinate them with La Rose Jacqueminot. Romantic. Captivating. The scent that started it all in Paris in 1905. Wear it and absolutely no man will be able to resist.
Lesson Two: How to Keep Them Guessing: Intrigue them with Chypre. Elegant. Evocative. The scent that has inspired so many imitations. Yet it has gone unrivaled. Its sensuous aura says you're a woman of style and a bit mysterious too.
Lesson Three: How to Command Attention: Seduce them with Les Muses. Coty's highly guarded secret. Dramatic. Sensuous. A multifaceted scent that leaves men longing for your attention. Now that you're fluent in French, its up to you to decide exactly what to say.
An excerpt from The Muse in Wooden Shoes:
I tested the 80s rerelease and was surprised at its ladylike, powdery demeanor. Could this be the scent that Dorothy Parker, famous for her wit and barbed tongue, was also famous for wafting everywhere she went? Apparently it was not. It had been softened down, muzzled, prettied up. I liked the Chateau Collection EdT – it reminded me a lot of the vintage Miss Dior parfum my friend Tamara was so kind as to send me a sample of – but it was just… nice. Nice. Tons of aldehydes, like a good-girl fragrance of the time. Intelligent, well-mannered, nothing to trifle with, but still not the Green Goddess I’d been expecting.
I began to realize that these people were not all reviewing the same scent. “Old Lady,” tame, and powdery seemed to belong to the 1986 Chateau Collection rerelease; brutal, bold, and ambery seemed to be associated with any older version. The confusion seems to arise because even the 1986 stuff is discontinued, and people from eBay sellers to decanters have been calling the rerelease “vintage,” when in truth the rerelease diverges considerably from the original.
An excerpt from Perfume Fountain:
Having been discontinued in the 1960s, Coty Chypre was re-released a couple decades later, along with the other early Coty fragrances Les Muses and La Rose Jacqueminot. According to Michael Edwards, these reissues were done in 1986.
In reading reviews of Coty Chypre, one often finds dissimilar and even conflicting descriptions. This is due in large part to the fact that people are reviewing two different fragrances: either the original 1917 Chypre de Coty or the later ‘80s re-interpretation (and make no mistake, it is not merely a “reformulation” but rather a completely separate fragrance). This late reissue with gold cap bears no relation to the original Coty Chypre, save for a vague citrus top note. The reissue smells of jasminey florals that are sweeter & fresher rather than dirty, and there is a fairly loamy base that is decidedly more of what a lover of classic chypres would expect. Fascinatingly, hours after application, the most stunning, buttered labdanum note emerges, prompting me to nuzzle my wrist.
This ’80s reissue of Coty Chypre is a simple interpretation of everything that one would expect a fresh, classic chypre to be, with no jagged edges or discordant notes to be found. It is, in a word, gorgeous, if not a tad boring for those who want more bells and whistles (I am not one of the latter, I love the stuff). It must be stated that this later re-interpretation is not the scent that influenced Mitsouko – that would be the early Chypre parfum, to which this late version bears no real resemblance. This newer version reminds me of a cross between Rochas Mystere and Parure by Guerlain… at other times of “Y” de YSL, and at other times still of Vivage by Avon. It is an encapsulation of what one expected of a classic chypre at the time of its release…just as the original Coty Chypre was an interpretation of chypre – of Cyprus – utilizing all the materials that were available at the close of the distant age known as the Belle Epoque.
Chypre from the Chateau Collection has been discontinued. We are decanting from an unopened, boxed original bottle of eau de toilette from 1986.
