Versace Blue Jeans – Forgotten Giant (Jacques Cavallier, 1994)

Scentrack

Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring

I was a kid back then, but I clearly remember how Blue Jeans was huge at one point during the 90’s in my country. My older cousin literally was drowning himself with this Versace’s commercial success during these colorful and vivid years. Very soon Gaultier’s Le Male was the new kid in the town, and already by the end of the century Blue Jeans was somehow forgotten. That’s a pity, because Blue Jeans was, and still is a very interesting piece of perfumery. Like a missing link in perfumery evolution. The transitional form between classic men's perfumery of the 80’s and novel sweet masculinity of Kurkdjian’s Le Male and its successors.

Source: Instagram

The perfumer behind Blue Jeans was Jean-Pierre Bethouart. Master Bethouart will later precisely define his vision of Oriental masculinity with a slightly powdery twist with Versace Dreamer (1996) and Burberry Touch for Men (2000). Personally, I am a big fan of Bethouart’s vision of new age masculinity, and I consider him as a founder of 21^st century men's perfumery. To my knowledge, Blue Jeans was a detonator of a new explosion. While Kurkdijan’s Le Male kept only the basic fougere genre characteristics, Blue Jeans gently introduced new tendencies in perfumery.

The interplay of notes in Blue Jeans is absolutely amazing. It opens with lemon hard candy mixed with coke, very similar to lemon flavored Pepsi Twist infused with herbs and woodsy note of guitar rosewood. The lavender in Blue Jeans is simple, clean and synthetic. The note of Siberian fir is pronounced, and it is amazing that so easily fits within the composition. Surprising is how strong is an old school, floral bouquet of geranium, carnation and lily of the valley. Nowadays this retro floral kick might be little bit repulsive to contemporary noses. Towards the base, the clean musky powder becomes stronger, while vanilla and Tonka bean give a sweet aspect. Like sweet aspect of Jack Daniels mixed with coke.

I prefer to wear Blue Jeans during cold winter days, when this clean powdery undertones mixed with Tonka are easily released. It makes wonder for me.

Sometimes words are not sufficient to fully describe a composition, and Blue Jeans is one of them. The interplay of notes is outstanding, and great skill was needed to harmoniously mash all these notes. I have a great admiration for Blue Jeans, but one can feel it was made more than a quarter of a century ago. Personally, I like to wear it, but I dare Versace to hire Jean-Pierre Bethouart once again and give him a budget to create Blue Jeans 2.0 – a little bit cleaned up contemporary, 21^st century version, devoid of the old school floral bouquet with amped base notes. Blue Jeans is synthetic and fun, like its tacky bottle, but I would like more 90’s fun imported in this millennium.      

   

Longevity / Projection

Solid (6-8 hours) /Average

Suggested wearing

Casual / Daily in autumn, winter or spring

Alternatives

Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male – 21^st century modern fougere

Versace Dreamer – Bethouart’s polished lavender-Tonka combo

Burberry Touch for Men – clean violet leaf-cedar-powder

Pros

Addicting base notes

Extremely fun

Clean and vivid

Reasonably priced

Bottle and can

Cons

Little bit outdated – 80s flowers

Synthetic

Possible performance issues

Bottle and can

Rating

7/10