Thumbs Up
Horizon by Guy Laroche (1993) is an odd little fragrance, mostly unloved by the general masses, if years of original launch stock being available online for peanuts even 30 years later says anything about the stuff. This strange semi-aquatic semi-fougère furrowed brows in 1993 and still does today, but those who love it seem to really do, which makes this a “hidden gem” for those still believing in those (I personally do not). Perfumer Alain Astori seems to be the kind of perfumer to make fragrances that get discontinued and develop cult followings, if his other past works are anything to go on, so I’m not surprised to see his name pop up again here as the man behind Horizon. People using shaving products from this era might also recognize some of the blue/green mish-mash tropes here as downmarket, which might also have been a damning blemish against the success of what was meant at the time to be an upmarket fragrance. You might laugh now with how most Guy Laroche products go immediately into discounters upon release, but there was a time when they were quite luxuriant.The strange thing about Horizon is how it uses the aquatic structure to present a fougère, as if it was an evolution of the preceding Drakkar Noir by Guy Laroche (1982), from which the aquatic genre was ultimately an outgrowth with things like Davidoff Cool Water (1988). Horizon feels like a “clap back” against Cool Water (a fatal mistake considering its impact), by rolling back the aquatic aesthetics and asserting more herbal structures under the aldehydes, mint, and dihydromyrcenol “aquatic” opening moments. There are just too many notes here to bother confirming or denying what I smell among them, so just take away the fact this rides into a fougère accord augmented with rose and carnation, then made chewier with artemisia, fennel, caraway, and pine resins. The rich base of patchouli, sandalwood, oakmoss, and amber is a bit of a surprise really, with a muskiness that feels fuller than an aquatic usually is, plus more agrestic too. Performance is not a barnstormer, which is a hallmark of its apologetic 90’s design. By the time its all over, you’re wearing a fougère in much the same way you are with Jean Patou’s ill-fated Voyageur (1994).Perfumer Jean Kerleo famously resisted modernizing Patou’s house style, feeling the focus on high-quality natural materials and ostensibly classic French styles are what kept Patou “above” Chanel, Dior, and the like for years in the designer perfume market, and thus subversively granted the corporate suits at former owner Shaneel their wish by making Voyageur pull a bait and switch in the dry down. I don’t think Alain Astori had such a tongue-in-cheek goal in mind with Horizon, just that he wanted to embrace the aquatic phenomenon storming the designer perfume market by the 1990’s, but perhaps didn’t want to lean too fully in as many competitors did, since Guy Laroche sorta helped start it all. Whatever the reasoning was, or whatever insanity must have been on the brief that he won the bid for with his work, the results created a fragrance that straddled generations and worlds, which usually results in rejection from both parties since people seldom like compromises in their fragrance. Oh well, this “if you know, you know” fragrance gets a clean bill of artistic health from me. Thumbs up
Hoặc