Bruno Fazzolari- Seyrig

When I listed Seyrig, the newest perfume by Bruno Fazzolari in my Top Ten Picks For Fall it wasn't so much because it's an autumnal scent, but because I could not get enough and had no intention to stop wearing it just because the seasons have changed. Seyrig is beyond time or place, and just as you don't necessarily put away your Chanel No.5, Caleche, or Joy when the weather turns (or at least I never do), Seyrig is here to stay.

Bruno Fazzolari is as well-versed in vintage fragrances as he is in modern perfumery. His range goes from the avant-garde soot of Blacklamp to the nostalgic chypre Au Dela. Seyrig is another journey back in time. It is clearly inspired by the green floral aldehydic of the 60s and 70s. Thos of us who remember them fondly get equal parts comfort and excitement from such compositions. They were the promised mysteries of adulthood, the stuff we'll understand when we grow up. Now we're all grown up but that romance may still elude us. But Seyrig brings it ever so closer.

Then there's the syringa flower that gave its name to the perfume. A distant relative of lilac, closer somehow to orange blossom, it has a n airy quality. It's no surprise that on one occasion that I've practically showered myself with Seyrig the husband found the experience objectionable. So much fizzy bubbling aldehydes popping in the air among the various floral notes that at these quantities feel like a soapy-airy balloon. He thought it was ozonic, and while I couldn't see it at the time, I think I know what he meant: so much air bubbles bursting into a shower of tiny florets. All the while I was concentrating on the opulence of Seyrig's core, where Bruno Fazzolari has woven a thick tapestry of classic rose and ylang over a base of a dirty musky oaksmoss.

An earlier iteration of Seyrig smelled dirtier, more centered on those unmentionables of yore, true animlaics that belong in antique carvings on the walls of an ancient bath house of a questionable reputation  (I loved it beyond words, but what do I know?).  Seyrig as we wear it today has learned to walk the line. It's soapier, for sure, as the hidden corners have been scrubbed clean and decorated tastefully, but it still bears the recognizable marks of a real perfume, one that has a furry base, that you can rely on to make it through the small hours, after you've danced the night away dressed and bejeweled, and you're ready to keep the party going in somebody's house. Doing this, Seyrig connects you not just to those who partied before you in Don Draper's modern Manhattan apartment, but also to the revelers who bought the very first bottles of Chanel No.5, Chypre de Coty, or My Sin.

Seyrig by Bruno Fazzolari ($110, 30ml eau de parfum) is available directly from brunofazzolari.com as well as at Luckyscent. The sample for this review was sent by the perfumer. I've since purchased a bottle.

Art: George Barbier, La Danse, 1914