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In 1974, Givenchy declared that men were Gentlemen. It was the launch of its fragrance Givenchy Gentleman. With this Fragrance, Givenchy settled the modern man, as elegant as charismatic. It was also one of the first times a luxury brand would dare to add a bit of humour on its advertising.
Givenchy Gentleman pour homme - Adv 1987

The fragrance itself, it was a beautiful rich woody fragrance with notes of Vetiver and Patchouli. It is one of the most elegant fragrances for men and one of the best Patchouli too.

39 years later, the Gentleman is back with a new fragrance called Gentlemen Only. In this new opus, we see our gentleman again offering his umbrella to a very beautiful lady but the context is a little different.

Gentleman-Only-Givenchy

What is interesting is that we see who is the man. In the 1987 advertising we only see a woman and the man’s arm. This time, it is the opposite ! It is like we found the lost piece of the puzzle. Check for yourself!

Gentleman-Givenchy

Here is the TV ad with Australian actor Simon Baker (The Mentalist, Judas Kiss, The Devil wears Prada).

In terms of fragrance, it is a good interpretation of the original. At the same time, with such an amazing base, Givenchy could only do something nice. The woody base is kept, though cleaned up for more modernity and youth. Green Mandarin and Pink Pepper, open the fragrance in a bright vibrant way, leading to a contemporary vision of men. This new intro keeps him a little away from the original and probably more into the market. The risk might be to be linked to other masculine fragrances with a kind of same start. Nevertheless, the base notes are just nicely orchestrated.

2013-GENTLEMEN-ONLY-Givenchy-ad

 

Gentleman-only-Givenchy-packaging

 

The flacon remained the same from the original Gentleman, only the top part was changed. The bright metal cap was replaced by a dark mate one. The colour is also quite good. A soft grey-lavender that unites good taste, timeless elegance and modernity.

You can discover more about Gentlemen Only in the dedicated website:

http://www.givenchyconversations.com/category/gentlemen-only

It is never too late to behave like a Gentleman…

LA

 

Info sourced at the brand official website, wikipedia, Fragrantica and Osmoz. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.