Flanking Heck! What happened to flankers and why are they not like they used to be?

Once upon a time, a 'flanker' was a variation on the theme of the main fragrance that would come in the form of Light, or Fraiche, or Sport, or Cologne versions. It seemed to be taken as read that these fragrances would be overwhelmingly similar to the original and usually well known fragrance, with a few twists or alterations that made it an interesting accompaniment to the main event, without overshadowing the original or deviating too far from it in both smell and sensibility.

Typically, a flanker seemed to be a lighter, more casual, more sporty scent, something to alternate with the more work-safe or traditional/formal fragrance: think Polo and Polo Sport, for an example where the flanker was released many years after the original. Perhaps flankers were always just a way to get men who would otherwise shun fragrances for anything other than work and/or special occasions in to wearing fragrances casually (i.e. more often, therefore more fragrance puchased), but there seemed to be a distinct logic and function to the way these fragrances were made/released. If they weren't lighter versions of the original, then they might be darker ones - something to wear in the evening, to a dinner or date, instead of doubling up with the same fragrance you'd be wearing all day at the office.

This has changed. Clearly. Designer fragrances, big and small, hardly follow this pattern anymore. Flankers, where they exist, regularly seem to have no connection to the original fragrance they are connected to via branding. Instead, the designer houses trade on the brand and product recognition of an old and successful fragrance (Acqua di Gio, Boss Bottled, The One, Polo and on and on) to release fragrances that have more in common with other flankers than the originals they're based on (is Polo Supreme Oud closer to Polo Green or Boss Bottled Oud, Versace Oud Noir, Armani Eau de Nuit etc etc). Chanel and Dior treat flankers as a way to build on the original fragrance with arguably a more polished/accomplished version of the original - Chanel's BdC flankers stay fairly true to the original but Dior's Sauvage EDPs and Parfums are a fairly big step up (or just away) from the otherworldly weirdnessof the EDT.

It seems to me this is indicative of the way the perfume market has changed over the last 20 years. Particularly with regard to designer fragrances. When the Tom Ford-directed YSL released Rive Gauche in 2003 - a retro barbershop rougere that skirted around the dreary aspects of the powerhouse era and modernised some of the more traditional, powdery, aromatic elements of the genre - it came with 'Light' and 'Intense' flankers for men, as well as having a female version that had several of its own flankers as well. Hermes' Terre d'Hermes may well be the last release to go down the route of lighter, cologne-like flankers to accompany the original release, although it also acted as a bridge in to the new (and rather uncreative) trend of simply naming flankers as 'EDP', 'Parfum' etc and producing darker, thicker, stronger versions as well. Now, Tom Ford's own brand (although sans Tom Ford the man) is well and truly signed up to the HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER mantra for flankers: the recent Costa Azzurrra and Grey Vetiver 'Parfum' flankers in particular stand out, as do a few others like the Noirs. On Grey Vetiver in particular, the light/fresh EDT version which quickly followed on the heels of the original EDP was quietly discontinued a few years ago; the new Parfum version should be seen ostensibly as a replacement flanker to the EDP. This fragrance alone marks the trend for flankers - from lighter, casual fragrances designed to accompany the original release, to heavier, darker, more bombastic, spicier, base-heavy scents that may or may not have a clear connection to the original release.

This shift is, to my mind, a sign of the decline primarily of European sensibilities (and I'd include North America in that as well) in favour of Arabic ones over the direction of masculine perfumery. It's not surprising that this shift, which happened during the noughties, coincided with the introduction of oud in to western and European designer perfumery (ironically, via Tom Ford again, in YSL's M7; and a few years later TF's Oud Wood). On the whole, lighter, fresher fragrances are dismissed in favour of louder, thicker, heavier, darker, and undoubtedly more oriental notes and accords when it comes to flankers - particularly in the designer market. There are certainly a few exceptions or counterpoints - Prada's Luna Rossa range comes to mind, with its Sport and Eau Sport flankers; although it also has heavy spicy gourmand flankers as well - but by and large it very clearly feels like even European designer brands are no longer catering to European tastes. Or, they are banking on shifting the tastes of the European (and, again, American/Anglosphere) market to the Eurabic trend - which, seemingly, they've achieved.

Perhaps most obvious of all, however, is the remarkable shift in the function of fragrance. If flankers were introduced to encourage the middle class professional man to buy more than one aftershave/cologne by appealing either to the more carefree and dressed down side of life, or by offering something slightly more nocturnal than the office-ready original, then flankers now are almost entirely unconcerned with meeting the standards of professional attire or offering a secondary option to the work-safe original scent. So many things are wrapped up in this change: from the way people work, to what people think matters in public, to something more value-oriented. Fragrances have shifted away from light and fresh towards darker and heavier, and in doing so seem designed more and more for both night time and evening wear, as well as being made to sit in a large collection.

I mention this because I feel the lack of fresher, lighter, cologne options of good designer or even niche fragrances is a real shame. Something like Beau de Jour, for instance, would benefit greatly from having a Fraiche flanker that stripped out the thick, rich, ambery base and paired the aromatics with something more bracing and uplifting that could be worn more like a traditional aftershave.

- What do you think caused the shift from functional flankers to novelties/annual releases and then eventually flankers that are only loosely connected to the original fragrance?
- What do you make of this change? Do you like it?
- Do you wish there were lighter or sport/cologne versions of some of your favourite contemporary designer fragrances?
- Or do you like the way things are now?

slpfrsly said:

Or do you like the way things are now?

Click to expand...

Yes I'm perfectly fine with the way things are now.

I agree that in many cases in recent flankers are no longer flankers in the original meaning of that term, but rather entirely different fragrances that bear little in common with their progenitors.
Primarily, in my opinion, it is about the bottom line, just everything else, especially when it comes down to large multinational global brands and corporations. Just tweak the fragrance somewhat, churn out a sequel every year (or season), get the fans of the original and collectors buy an extra bottle. This reminds me of the remixing craze in music in the 90s and 00s, when every chart contender had to have 3 dozen different remixes across 6 different formats, forcing fans to buy every single one, thus inflating the sales.
Then there's overreliance on brand recognition and blatant laziness - no need to create a new name, new bottle, no need to invest in new marketing, for new fragrances - just keep the same name and same visuals, design, thus keeping the same market and possibly adding a new one. No risk, little effort. Just milk that cash cow to no end.

Though for every Dior Homme flanker ignominy there's L'Occitane that reliably puts out a true nice flanker of Verveine every year.

This is a nice topic that deserves a thoughtful reply. I'm on my phone so pardon more shorthand-like answers.

A small correction on Rive Gauche pour Homme: The original women's version came first in 1972. Tom Ford made a latecoming men's version to celebrate 30 years, and continuing the trend started with the latecoming 90's male counterpart of YSL Opium (from 1976). The light and intense variants of the women's version are new fragrances though, but the OG is just a reformulation.

1) I think the shift is wholly to blame on the usual marketing and accounting suspects, internal style gurus, mood boards, focus group testing, blah blah. They figured out taking unused or unwanted formulas from oil houses or mods of a popular briefs, altering them to suit, then releasing them as flankers to a familiar line was easier than original R&D from the ground up, so long as they were copying/competing with a popular style. Steve Jobs had a quote about knowing what people want when you show it to them, etc.

2) I am sorta indifferent. Seeing so many brands do their take on Invictus or Aventus as flankers of popular lines (eg. Valentino Uomo Born in Roma, or Dunhill Desire Gold, respectively) is tiring and disillusioning. Big "creativity is dead" vibes, et al. On the other hand, having a line like Polo, with a Green, Blue, Black, and Red ranges that are all distinctly different flavors or moods is also nice too, so sometimes this strategy can be done correctly and tastefully.

3) I actually do wish the lighter/sportier "X Sport" style flankers or heavier "X Concentrée" style fragrances (different from "EdP", "Parfum", or "Elixir" in that they are just heavier takes and not significantly modified). Some of my absolute favorites are Sport, Concentrée or L'Eau/Fraîche alternates (see my most worn stuff).

4) It's a mixed bag about the way things are now. I think Terre d'Hermès is one of the last great classically-minded men's lines out there, and it's just 2 years shy of turning 20 now, which says a lot.

PS: "Otherworldly Weirdness" for Dior Sauvage had me giggle. So true. Bravo.

I am pretty indifferent to the current state of releases, but I do have interest in watching it all develop.

I just see the flankers as a lazy and low risk marketing technique. The actual scent is irrelevant. At this point the name "Sauvage" or "Bleu de Chanel" have become the "brand" as much or more than "Dior" or "Chanel." I'd bet many Sauvage users don't even associate the scent with Dior, or know what Dior is.

Sauvage.
Cool black bottle.
Johnny Depp.

We fragheads are not representative of the buying public at large.

I kind of feel bad some of the people at Chanel and Dior. They no doubt have bright and creative people working for them with some bold ideas. I'll bet there have been some scents developed by both that would thrill many of us. But at the two big guys on the block, woe be unto the poor soul that pushes to introduce a new scent that doesn't immediately outperform any of the flankers they have issued.

Don't forget they have both have had some bombs in their past. They well remember them. And right now they see anything that riffs off Bleu or Sauvage does well. Most anyone here in their shoes would probably do the same thing.

I have no in depth insights into their profitability, but it certainly seems to me like one or both of them could afford to launch something new just for grins if nothing else. Not as a replacement for their mainstays, just to be an alternative. But I guess it's too easy and safe to do more flankers. The argument could be made that Sauvage Elixir is sort of like a new scent, but named to keep it familiar. It seems pretty unrelated to original Sauvage to me.

Sort of a bummer that new ownership at Creed seems mostly to be going down the same flanker path. I don't particularly like Viking myself, but at least they pulled something new out of their azz and threw it at the wall.

I’ve lost track and lost interest, some are nice but most are cash grabs and disappointments. I’d rather a completely new fragrance be released, I wasn’t around for the days when quality standout fragrances were released but I do wear them now and greatly appreciate them as you never tire of them.

Agree with all upthread who noted that flankers are a marketing shortcut, capitalizing on name recognition with, in some cases, minimal regard for relevance to the original concept.

As for why perfumeries have turned to heavier rather than lighter flankers, I can think of two fairly obvious reasons:

1) Fragbros, who drive the influencer space, are all about competitive performance—they want club conquerors rather than office-friendly fare;

2) When a flanker promises more—parfum, intense, extreme, concentrée, etc.—you can get away with charging more, while a lighter flanker sounds like it should sell for less.

So, you start with an EDT, and if it hits, you upsell your customers on a series of “more is more” flankers.

It all seems very random - sometimes you get something like Paco Rabanne Invictus V which has nothing to do with regular Invictus (warm vanilla instead of freshie) but is way better in my opinion. Sauvage Elixir was an instant classic

Then there are just infinite ultra-mediocre flankers like 1 Million Elixir, Le Male Elixir, etc

I don't mind or care, I agree it's a marketing shortcut that makes sense like @PStoller mentoned. Some flankers are also meant for certain markets, not necessarily specifically North America. The new le Beau was first released in Brazil and is likely meant for that market. Guerlain is focusing more on Asia and not USA.

@gentel noooo I actually really like le male elixir, would rather have it than most Xerjoff fragrances I have tried! granted I have not tried most of the other fragrances you listed...

Thanks for starting this discussion. I immediately thought of Kouros and several of its early flankers. Fraicheur and (especially) Eau de Sport are/were so similar to the original flankee, and didn't stick around that long, so perhaps YSL thought "oh oh, we need to really differentiate these going forward" (hence Body et al).

The use of Flankers today is a ploy for the brands to get shelf space/purchase orders from the big stores for the original.

All the buyers at the stores want is “new”, novelty. All the brands want is to sell loads more of that formula and bottle design they’ve been selling for years and paid the product dev costs off.

So the flanker is offered up as “bait”. Have this new thing, the stores are told, but you have to stock the OG as well.

The lack of scent connection to the OG is probably because they just go to IFF et al and get some formula that they’d already done off spec.

And the bottle is just the old one with a different finish.

slpfrsly said:

- What do you think caused the shift from functional flankers to novelties/annual releases and then eventually flankers that are only loosely connected to the original fragrance?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing some type of cynical, economic trend. Kind of like how multiple major film studios were trying to create their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, or why they seem to be more heavily invested in reboots or inane adaptations of virtually anything remotely well-known (Milton-Bradley's boardgame Battleship??).
They rationalized it's a safer bet to just release completely different stuff, just attached with a previously established name and built-in audience. They save a lot of production costs as well by not having to make a new bottle design.

Why take the risk of having to build an audience and awareness for a new name and product when you can just recycle the branding/marketing from a previous, known hit?

Another thing: Maybe these designer houses found out they made too little money or lost too much money, releasing legitimate flankers back the day. All of Kouros' flankers have been discontinued for quite a while. Santos de Cariter Sport was discontinued a while back while the original persists.

In the past, I think the public made "exceptions" for certain designer houses. Guy La Roche for example. They struck gold with Drakkar Noir and played it extremely safe by releasing different fragrances disguised as a flanker of that one. I guess they got a pass since it seems like they're not really known for anything other than their first flanker of Drakkar. The original isn't even known by most people.

slpfrsly said:

- What do you make of this change? Do you like it?

Click to expand...

Not too much. If they're completely different scents...why not just market them that way? As a potential customer, I like the idea of a particular scent having a "light version" and a "concentrated version." That gives me a lot of options, and is more likely to get my money. There's a lot of fragrances out there that I'd likely buy and wear if only they only tweaked the formula a bit, in say a light or sport version.

Especially when fragrance counters are shrinking, and online (blind) buying is becoming more popular, I'm more willing to take a chance with an accurate light/sport/fraiche version than I am a flanker that's reportedly a completely different scent.

slpfrsly said:

- Do you wish there were lighter or sport/cologne versions of some of your favourite contemporary designer fragrances?

Click to expand...

Yes but there's not that many contemporary fragrances that I'm a fan of.
-K by D&G would be nice if they released a version that was a little lighter or smoother in the drydown.
-Missoni Pour Homme is fantastic and they would definitely get my money again if they released legit flankers of that one: Sport, Fraiche, and Concentree. It's already labeled an Eau de Parfum though when really, it seems like it should be an Eau de Toilette.

Isn't an Eau de Cologne more along the lines of being just above an aftershave in terms of longevity and projection? The vintage Avon men's aftershave's last longer than modern, mainstream EDTs so I'm not interested in current but accurate EDC's of contemporary fragrances.


Since Rive Gauche Pour Homme was mentioned, I really wish I had been able to try out the Light version, as I think the regular one is too heavy for my taste.
- Or do you like the way things are now?
No but I'm not too bothered by it. Though it does make this interest of mine less interesting by becoming unnecessarily complicated.

I agree with many folks above - it's mostly to do with marketing.

slpfrsly said:

This shift is, to my mind, a sign of the decline primarily of European sensibilities (and I'd include North America in that as well) in favour of Arabic ones

Click to expand...

...?

slpfrsly said:

On the whole, lighter, fresher fragrances are dismissed in favour of louder, thicker, heavier, darker, and undoubtedly more oriental notes and accords

Click to expand...

...? The most popular men's fragrances these days are universally blue, fresh, citrus forward, shower gel based, hyper-hygiene snooze-fests....

I'm fine with the way things are now.

Flankers do have the potential to be an interesting artistic exercise and I agree it’s unfortunate this opportunity is rarely taken these days.

I’m thinking of how Monet would paint the same lilies at different times of day or how other artists will create a series on a theme. Flankers could totally be an interesting exploration of a fragrant concept, but they usually aren’t.

Mugler seems to be the only one to have fully explored flankers in this way with the endless and creative riffs on A Men.

Changes in concentration do seem to be the lowest and least interesting form of flanking while also the most popular right now. I tend to think perfumer knows best when it comes to concentration and I usually find the original version works best. Alternate concentrations often throw out of balance what was great about the original.

Also agree this is mostly due to laziness and bland profit driven corporate entities making the creative decisions. Today’s flanker is more of an upsell than a side sell.

I also suspect this has something to do with the sheer overwhelming variety of fragrances available now and the decrease in people’s loyalty to just one perfume. In the old days a lot more people would be loyal to a single perfume for life, so I imagine they would be delighted by and ready to buy up seasonal variations on their favorite.

From a personal viewpoint alone, trying to answer each question as on topic as possible:

- What do you think caused the shift from functional flankers to novelties/annual releases and then eventually flankers that are only loosely connected to the original fragrance?
Actually, if liking a flanker (even irrespective of how objectively good it is) not minding either way to wear and own one or more flankers, irrespective if more functional and closer to the regular version, or more loosely connected to the main theme-irrespective if regarding the notes, the gender, the in house fragrance line etc.

- What do you make of this change? Do you like it? Again, liking or disliking the specific flanker irrespective of any change-however tending to like this tendency mostly if the amount and/or variety of scents do enjoy increases rather than stagnates and/or is affected by discontinuation

- Do you wish there were lighter or sport/cologne versions of some of your favourite contemporary designer fragrances?
Largely fine with the current situation. Though never fully excluding the possibility that any good male/unisex designer and even designer exclusive/niche tier could benefit from both light/sport AND of EDP/extrait/elixir etc. stronger flankers.

- Or do you like the way things are now?
For the most part yes, but would neither mind nor be absolutely keen on additional flankers. Same with non flanker, "main" line scents-as long as they bring new quality and variety to the table

I like that you think so much and have so many thoughts on any given issue @slpfrsly but I simply give up reading up on it all. So, sorry about that.

To me I think they simply piggyback ride on a name that sells. Unoriginal and laizy…like my answer without reading the full post(s).

They're spreading themselves thin.
Sometimes they hit pay dirt and will continue in the same vein trying to grab a bigger piece of the pie. All the while making guys like me numb to all the repetitious hype. Blah, blah, blah.

I was thinking about this thread today as I was applying Chanel Allure Pour Homme Edition Blanche. The Allure Homme line is an early example of very random flankers. None of the flankers relate to the original in any way. Edition Blanche has no relation to any of them, and is more of an AdP Colonia rip off (though I love it). I can only assume Chanel didn't want to acquire new names and bottles for the Sport and Blanche scents, so they made them flankers of Allure Homme.
I've always been curious about the original's popularity. I don't really think of it as a popular scent, but it still appears on department store shelves 25 years later.

Brian5701 said:

I was thinking about this thread today as I was applying Chanel Allure Pour Homme Edition Blanche. The Allure Homme line is an early example of very random flankers. None of the flankers relate to the original in any way. Edition Blanche has no relation to any of them, and is more of an AdP Colonia rip off (though I love it). I can only assume Chanel didn't want to acquire new names and bottles for the Sport and Blanche scents, so they made them flankers of Allure Homme.
I've always been curious about the original's popularity. I don't really think of it as a popular scent, but it still appears on department store shelves 25 years later.

Click to expand...

Edition Blanche and Sport Cologne are directly related, and loosely related to a long-gone Allure Homme Fraîchessante pour L'éte that had the lemony DNA mixed with the Allure composition, and a weird bit of funk.

Polge spun off the lemon into Sport Cologne and Edition Blanche, when the Allure FpL was discontinued.