Grey Flannel

One of my first experiences with cologne (eau de toilette, actually) was when I was in high school and needing a job.  Having been told by a former girlfriend that I was hot, I answered a modeling ad in a local paper.  Squeaky clean and thinking I'd be stripping to my shorts, oiling up, and posing, I arrived at the group interview and was informed that we would be employed as 'fragrance models', those intrepid and even dangerous individuals placed like slalom pinions in department stores, gazing at your approach and with a smile that knows it's too late to change course, that you're inexorably drawn through a cloud of reeking mist -- the price you pay for the beeline you've drawn to yonder sock sale.

I glumly accepted the position and performed this task on three consecutive weekends.  I can't remember how much I was paid but it wasn't enough.  I was told to smile and make eye contact, that I was Representing.  But it's difficult to make eye contact with people running from you, tester in hand.  I tried handing out free samples but they were left on racks and in shoes like so many Costco food samples.  Bored, I began to spray other employees.  I was not asked to return.  Frederick & Nelson would not have me back.

But there is a silver lining -- or a grey one.  One of the better smells of that experience was Geoffrey Beene's Grey Flannel, a dark green bottle packed in a grey box, silver and black label, and a dark grey drawstring bag made of -- wait for it -- grey flannel.  I'm not a particular fan of celebrity culture including design house goods such as the inevitable fragrance but I really like this scent.  It's a masculine, woodsy, herbal odor with a hint of lavender and sandalwood, perhaps a whiff of tanned leather with a hint of fur.  And sex -- corporate and oddly satisfying.

 
Best of all, it's inexpensive.  It's been around for decades and there are so many new and exciting odors (and my olfactory fairly moistens in anticipation of coming into contact with anything remotely associated with Victoria Beckham, I assure you), I doubt it enjoys any kind of marketing plan or advertising budget.  Those of us who like it keep buying it and not necessarily wearing it.  I've had this bottle for at least 3 years.  It's almost full.  I'm not a cologne person and perhaps this is a cologne for those like me.  It actually smells good.

Do you wear cologne?  Do you wear toilet water?