Created by : Josephine Catapano
Date : 1966
Genre : Green floral gorgeous (was)
Concentration : eau de toilette
I went looking for something to wear for the spring today. Can you imagine that here we are in late March in Montreal and winter dumped another 10 cms. of snow? And… it’s chilly, humid and windy! I needed something to remind me of the summer. So when I saw the Fidji bottle in the discount perfumer’s showcase, I asked to try it out. When I think of perfumes my mother wore, I think of Crêpe de Chine, L’Air du Temps and Fidji, in that order. And I’m happy to say that I was the one who introduced her to Fidji. A girl I liked who lived across the street from our house wore it and I thought this girl was beautiful and classy and so I bought Fidji for my mother for Christmas and it became her signature scent for a long time. I wanted to see if Fidji had held up or not.
The sales associate sprayed some on a scent strip and then on my skin. I got a blast of “old school” gorgeous! All the elements were there as I remembered them… green galbanum, a symphony of white florals, banana-tinged ylang ylang for that tropical edge and civet… but done so expertly, I thought… this is it! What luck! At my very first outing, I found what I’ve been looking for. But… before pulling out my credit card, a little voice in my head spoke… “step away from the counter”… and I did… long enough to check out the notes on the Internet. All the French classic ingredients were there… jasmine, rose, violet, carnation and a base of musk, patchouli, amber, vetiver and moss! It was incredible… but still I waited and I’m glad I did because within 15 minutes Fidji had morphed on my skin to be a soapy, floral, powdery concoction… the fresh green note had disappeared as had the ylang ylang. It wasn’t what it started out to be… but still I thought it wasn’t half bad. But then, an hour into the fragrance… meh! Beautiful Fidji had become a sweet, powdery nondescript scent that, although not unpleasant, wasn’t enough to make it into my magic closet.
And so… in the middle of the mall, a little ditty from about the same time that Fidji hit the market came to mind.
