Arrogance pour Femme
Arrogance (1982)

Arrogance pour Femme by Arrogance (1982) is a big and bold floral chypre that is the equal opposite to the more-notorious men's version released the same year. In this case, we at least know who the perfumer is, and it's none other than Raymond Chaillan, who had made Anais Anais by Cacharel (1978) several years earlier. Rumors are linked to Arrogance pour Femme being a reworked mod from the brief that spawned the final composition of Anais Anais, and a few sniffs will support that theory, although Raymond here is credited alone, versus with the cadre of perfumers that are signed to the Cacharel. The notable similarities come in the soapiness of the opening of course, but the biggest deviation then comes with the relatively fat-bottomed dry down of Arrogance, which goes through throws of muskiness, woodiness, and mossiness not entirely unlike the men's counterpart. For sure, Arrogance pour Femme is the more refined and sophisticated of the two perfumes in the pair, because we are talking about the early 80's cultural diadem where men were meant to be these near-uncontrollable sex beasts while women were the gussied-up damsels with the geometric outfits and teased hair made out to be the quarry that men had to give chase.

This was something of a distillation and holdover from the sexual liberation of the 70's, and it was given a neon zebra stripe make-over into the mid-80's, and began including homoerotic images and genderbent accords as the decade worn on, thanks to the fashions, music stars of the day, which became cultural stewards of the time. The men's fragrances were all about "here I come" while the women's were "well come and get me", and that sort of signalling is part of why they kept going up in volume and boisterousness until public bannings on them started to happen by the end of the decade. Arrogance pour Femme is no Giorgio Beverly Hills (1979) or Dior Poison (1985) however, and likely won't get you in as much trouble. The aldehydes are spare, the peach lactones smoother, and the rose/jasmine core sweetened with orange blossom. Likewise, the oakmoss and patchouli chypre base is balanced by Chaillan himself, and he is not a perfumer to make fragrances with jarring edges. At the end of it all, there is a touch of that returning soapiness from the top, mixed with the rose, the orange blossom, and some woodiness to make an almost unisex allure, or at least inasmuch like Revlon Charlie (1973) with its retrofitted men's citrus aromatic chypre grafted onto florals for the liberated women of the 70's. Either way, this is low-key flirty, and appealing to all who smell it, thus the name "Arrogance" is still apt.

Performance is nothing to sneeze at, but this won't fumigate your house like the men's version will. Still, you might want to go easy on the trigger if you're trying for the first time. It also seems the follow-up men's fragrance called Arrogance Uomo by Arrogance (1987) repurposes the women's bottle here but painted black and with different cap, but it is not the proper mate to this scent, and is a much cleaner fresh fougère trying to be in-step with things like Drakkar Noir by Guy Laroche (1982), which had almost instantly rendered men's fragrances of these types obsolete by its popularity. The uncontrollable monster was stuffed back into his tuxedo and made to say "Sir" and "Ma'am" by decade's end for this reason. In any case, Arrogance pour Femme also seems to have less of a cult following, and is thus less expensive to hunt down for collector's than the men's counterpart, so vintage enthusiasts who appreciate classic aldehyde chypres sold on the women's counters of department stores in decades yore can get a bottle with slightly less sting to their coinpurse. All Shiaparelli-Pikenz fragrances are basically dead in the water these days aside from ones bought and carried on by other houses, so that can only be a good thing. A classic and oft-overlooked brew is this, and despite the name, Arrogance pour Femme proves to be a bit more middle-of-the-road and sensible compared to the big tuberose and animalic rose chypres of the day. Thumbs up

Genre: Floral Amber, Bouquet, Classical

I feel like I"m in the best of company, when I love something that Darvant believes is excellent. Arrogance pour Elle is a beautifully executed classical floral, from the time (1982) when people typically found a "signature" scent, and stayed with it. These perfumes, had to be all things, to all people, or, at least, they had to go all places, at all times; and Arrogance has a versatility in its lovely personality, that today comes over as old-fashioned.

It was launched in 1982, before the arrival of powerhouse 80s, and it has a quality of sparkling freshness in its opening that suggests mild aldehydic lift and citrus, but settles into a floral heart that to my nose is dominated by ylang-ylang, with rose and jasmine and orange blossom, and a little muguet for just a little greenness--but its heart pulses with warm yellow floral energy. At the same time, there is an undercurrent of cool creaminess, the scent of classic makeup dressing-tables, that blends the florals together into a unified personality. Its ambery base is not terribly sweet, and the focus remains on its florals throughout its life. It has a powdery musk that takes over in later stages, but it retains a pink-cheeked freshness from its bouquet composition. The skillful blending on display throughout makes this a pleasure to wear, even for a fatigued perfume palate.

I own both vintage and modern versions. Vintage has a more assertive amber and civetty animalics, but it is still quite delicate without being precious about it. Modern smells surprisingly good, is easier to wear in mixed company outside of the house during the day, and often elicits questions about what lotion I am wearing, most likely due to its creamy impression. If you like perfumes like Amouage Ubar but feel overwhelmed its grandeur, this perfume is a little like Ubar Legere. It is best in spring and early summer daytimes, but I wear it on warm days all year round, and sometimes to bed at night, when I don't want one of my powdery monsters. It is an excellent value, and easy to find, at the discounters.

Arrogance Pour Femme is one of the best fragrances of perfumery if evalued on its price/quality ratio. A creamy-musky jasmine's rendition with a sort of victorian soapy-rosey-honeyed floral balmy substance (I detect a sort of jasmine-cream, a balm of floral nectar, something kind of honeyed, yummy-vanillic and rosey). A gracious and diaphane (really radiant, poudre and vaguely soapy) musky-vanillic aroma with a stout ylang-ylang, a main rose-jasmine accord (jasmine more than rose), a further floral talky powder, hints of fruity-hesperidic accents (kind of apricots), a subtle spiciness (mild and almost yummy), a touch of woodiness, a spark of mintiness and lot of chyprey amberish sensuality (surely a well calibrated civet is present in the formula). I have to say that a moderate aldehydic presence enhances the initial radiancy while a link of orange, tuberose and ylang-ylang exudes a sort of soapy-peachy sophisticated (and musky) undertone. Classic but not in a traditional heavy-chypre way (indeed more modern and musky-vanillic than particularly honeyed of mossy). If you appreciate (for several of their characteristics) scents a la Estee Lauder White Linen, Amber et Vanille E. Coudray or Grossmith Phul-Nana (or several talky Caron's pearls a la Bellodgia) you could surely appreciate this stuff. The final outcume is soft class and delicious floral cleanliness with hints of ambery-animalic warmth, overall for € 10 or a tad more. Excellent, guys.