Cavalier
Avon (1989)

spicy and wonderful and longlasting. This is somewhat like Calvin Klein Obsession for Men but much spicier and stronger in a good way. Absolutely an incredible value if you pick up an older bottle for dirt cheap.

Avon Cavalier (1989) is a fantastic fragrance when taken on its own merits, but really spelled trouble for the mailorder cosmetics brand when taken against the backdrop of the era in which it was released. Like all things involving Avon, this isn't something that can be stated simply, and that's mostly their fault for being so byzantine with their business practices and history; but it also isn't something that you wouldn't see coming if you knew the story up until this point. I'm not going to recant all that here of course, but I will give a cliffnotes version of it. So basically, Avon chased the prominent middle classes in America with its catalog the same way Sears also did (and eventually its stores). Just like Sears. when Avon reached its peak influence and was flush with cash, it decided to go shopping and diversify its holdings to try and be everything to everyone within its respective market. With Avon, this meant buying manufacturers and distributors of designer perfumes, cosmetics, and jewelry, plus working with celebrities then hilariously forgetting to put their name on any of the bottles so nobody knew that expensive fragrance came from them. To make things more confusing, other designers and celebrities had their fragrances directly distributed by Avon through their catalogs, which had the opposite effect on the reputations of those who collaborated with them. All this happened while Avon's creations still bearing its name plunged further downmarket to match the weakening purchase power of their once middle-class market, those who didn't delay the inevitable by abusing a still-liberal credit industry, or manage to be "upwardly mobile" anyway. Particularly weird clashes of styles from disparate eras or blending of two unrelated designer tropes into one fragrance became the name of Avon's game until the 21st century.

The inmates ran the asylum in terms of creative direction too; so in a nutshell, there wasn't any. Ann Gottlieb was brought on board as per her trade as an outside creative director, but it looks like even she couldn't do much to save face with out-of-touch internal perfumers using only what raw materials Avon still sourced themselves. We were still a decade away from Avon openly outsourcing to the big European firms like Mane or IFF, so Avon Cavalier was released right smack dab in this period of diversification and internal neglect I like to describe as the "malaise era". Like most things from that era, Cavalier is impossibly quirky, but because it was one of the things Gottleib was on, it has some of her touch too. The basics of Cavalier are as follows: This is an oriental fragrance for men, taking some nods both from the then-recent Calvin Klein Obsession for Men (1986) that Gottleib directed, and the venerable Old Spice by Shulton (1937). The latter is something Avon outright cloned with Avon Brisk Spice (1984), and somewhat crossed with Royall Spyce by Royall Lyme of Bermuda (1961) when they made Avon Spicy (1968), so I feel like there is some "obsession" here with that particular Shulton-derived DNA for them. Beyond that, you get a strange but enjoyable mashup of everything from lavender fougère elements to dragon's blood incense, with a big ol' musk in the base. There's no use in describing the transitions here, as all this hits you at once with the clove, aldehydes, lavender, patchouli, amber, musk, sandalwood, and just all of it. Cavalier is one of Avon's stronger men's scents too, so it lasts all day and a trail of that ambery musk will follow you all day long. Best use for me is in cooler months, as a comfort food kind of vibe. I say this a lot, but this is another "dad's cologne" from Avon, which is sort of their thing, isn't it?

Cavalier came in a 3.25 oz splash in matching cologne and aftershave lotion, the former being a cross between brick and blood red, while the later is more of an ambery color liquid. The bottle is a classy ribbed flacon that reminds me of where you might stow away a toddy if you are the type to not be separated for long from his drink, although the futuristic font spelling "Cavalier" on the label literally screams "graphic design in my passion" the worst ways not yet conceived by the internet meme. This is also right around the time Avon started offering fragrances in the uniform 3oz "pill bottle" natural sprayer (thusly named for looking like a giant Advil caplet), so a lot of stuff made in the 80's starting with Avon Black Suede (1980) and ending with Avon Wild Country Outback (2003), was also available in this cheap-looking spray bottle if it didn't come in its own. Cavalier was one such fragrance, so if you detest a splash, you can find it in these spray bottles if you don't mind a flimsy plastic cap and terribly-placed sticker. The sexy smooth musky tones likely borrowed from Obsession merged with the classic "bay rum" tones of the Old Spice melange do mix in a way I find quite interesting, but I can imagine being too anachronistic in 1989. Avon men's fragrances in the 80's seemed reluctant to embrace the bolder and more-flirtatious lines that designer "powerhouse" masculines had taken, pulling back to comfy mid-century tropes with only then-modern flourishes instead. Now that 1930's and 1980's are both equally "vintage", something like Avon Cavalier may still seem bizarre, but is actually much easier to enjoy because it's just all nostalgia, mixed and matched. Whether it's enough for you to go down a very peculiar rabbithole is up to you. Thumbs up

Been trying some of the older Avon's recently and Cavalier is a drugstore barbershop scent reminiscent of the late 70s, early 80s. My take is it's the equivalent of two parts Old Spice, one part Timberline (old MEM version). Can be had on E-bay for $10 a 3oz. bottle so it won't set you back much if you go in for this type of thing. Brisk Spice by Avon is in the same vein, but better.