Equipage

The first masculine release (1970) from the wonderful house of Hermes. Excellence & class poured into a bottle. The nose - Guy Robert. This is a beauty. I am very blessed to have a Vintage Bottle of Hermes Equipage (light brown cap)- "aerospray" with 90% vol. One of the first masculine bottlings that utilized a very well-made and sturdy atomizer! The gorgeous aldehydes infuse the rich top notes of crisp bergamot, clary sage and rosewood (which is present throughout the entire wearing). I get the carnation note right underneath and its bloom is full and sharp (and develops into an earthy carnation-clove note while the scent warms on your skin). This is gentleman fragrance - old-school, yes...but absolutely beautiful and timeless! How does one describe this better than a combination of Shamus1 (inspiring and honest), jtd (awesome olfactory notes & scent development) and suburbanites (perspective)?!? To me, there are notes here that are presented in a fashion that is revelatory. I have a passion for Vintage fragrance that is always going to be relevant (including many classic Aromatic Fougeres, Chypres, and Leather scents - this is classified as an Oriental Fougere). Like others, it transcends both classifications and time. Guy Robert created a masterpiece in 1970 in Equipage! It lives on with those of us who care to take the time and respect true refinement in fragrance. My score - 9.5+/10. To be worn on special occasions...I look forward to it as I will do so with respect and confidence. I am not yet 40, but no concern. Elegant, proper attire is a must. **Update** - After losing Guy Robert (RIP) a few days ago, I came back and sprayed this on my arm. I enjoyed numerous fragrances of his in honor of the remarkable legacy and creations he left behind. This is, simply, magnificent. No other scent has ever been created quite like it (well, a year earlier Guy Robert's Monsieur Rochas held a similar 'blueprint', but to me they are not as close as some say...however, no one can ignore the fact that Rochas opened the door for the house of Hermes to hire the same genius and offer him a chance to finely chisel his work of olfactory art in Equipage). It is a scent that I adore and treasure. Merci Monsieur Robert! A masterpiece fragrance...forever, timeless. I have since acquired several Original Vintage and Vintage bottles with the Lucite/Bakelite "wheel" caps...both EdT and After Shave lotion. Splash and spray. I do not own any current version. There is a slight difference in the feel of Original Vintage (slight more "focused" and austere, with a bit more aldehydes, a touch more sharpness to the vetiver and a dollop more moss; while the newer Vintage has a more 'velvety' feel with added spices, a 'creme de rosewood' accord, a touch more powdery and is a bit more 'plush' in vibe). Both are truly exceptional and wear exquisitely - the late dry downs are almost identical - so don't get hung-up too much. It is the feeling in the heart and transition into the base where you get the slightly different "vibe" - more 'how' not 'what'. The notes are the same - just a feel that is slightly unique...and subtlety different. I adore them both. In the end, Vintage Equipage (Original or Newer Vintage) is, for me, a composition that is a must in my collection. Once you wear it (just once), you will never forget it. I have adjusted my score since further wearings (including some gorgeous ones when I layered Vintage After Shave with the EdT). This is very near perfection in a bottle for me...

A quintessential 70s masculine cologne that manages to be relevant today. The second day in a row I get to dip-in to Hermes's line of colognes - I'm one lucky guy! With this cologne, created by the legendary Guy Robert, the story is all about balance. Balance is a 3D characteristic: vertical (depth and evolution), and lateral (breadth, or expansiveness of notes at each stage). On a blotter this cologne smells decidedly more smokey, animalic, and leathery than it is currently presenting on my skin. That said, it smells better on my skin. Beautiful bergamot, sage and other herbs round out a pleasantly subtle floral and spice-laden heart that also contains a less-than-subtle note of smokey pine (cypriol), braced by earthy and leathery notes of mosses, patchouli, vetiver, and musks at the base. This cologne shape shifts, never letting one accord take too much of the stage before ceding the limelight to another. Just when you think that at a given moment the bergamot and herbs are the star, it shifts to the smokey cypriol and pleasant florals - but then, the leathery animalics and aromatics at the base get their say. It seems to shift quite precisely with how my body shifts. If I hold my arm up to my nose and keep it still the heart is most prominent, but when I move about and/or my body temperature goes up from frequent moving then the base carries more volume. Tinges of the beautiful citrus and herbal top notes play at various volumes as the heart or base show up too. The balancing act this cologne achieves is less like a skilled server carrying multiple fine-dining dishes up their arms and more like a ballet dancer swiftly and seamlessly moving from one movement and pose to a completely different movement/pose without you truly being conscious of how they did it. That said though, balletic though it is, it is not feminine or quiet. This is a hairy-chested man's fragrance. It is a product of the 70s through-and-through. But though it carries that old-school masculine confidence, the accords that call to mind the sort of Don Draper big-swinging-dick power broker sauntering into the corner office image, it isn't - dare I say it? - toxically masculine. This is Don Draper should he decide he has nothing to prove, his confidence became quiet rather than brash, all peoples and genders are his equals worthy of respect because nobody or anything can shake his comfortability and confidence in his person. When I want that old-school masculine smell that still manages to be modern and relevant, something powerful and confident without being loud and brash, this is a cologne I consistently reach for. It is excellent and I hope it stays with us for another 55 years and more. I suspect that even by its 110th birthday it will still be relevant and wonderful.

Équipage d'Hermès est selon moi l'eau de toilette trouvable en parfumerie sélective la plus atypique jamais senti. Élevé dans la tradition française du port d'eau de toilette et après en avoir porté une multitude, je cessais. Quelques années se passèrent. Je décidai de reporter une eau. Je me rendis en parfumerie sélective en 2016 et essayais plus ou moins à l'aveugle tout ce qu'il y avait pour homme et je repartis avec au poignet cette eau atypique, Équipage d'Hermès. Elle est atypique pour plusieurs raisons: . A l'époque, feu Guy Robert, un très grand nez, produit la première eau pour homme - une fougère orientale - pour Hermès et semble avoir influencé les eaux pour homme durablement et pour une vingtaine d'années ; . Avec Équipage, l'oeillet, fleur antique, souvent opposé à la rose est plutôt mis en valeur, chose rare quand les combos rose cuir ou rose cuir oud sont monnaies courantes; . Le génie de Guy Robert est dans l'équilibre de la présence des essences car nous ne sommes pas en presence de fragance linéaire, ou de fragance en deux ou trois temps, mais plutôt devant une symphonie de senteurs - Acqua di Parma donne aussi parfois cette impression - avec des évolutions conséquentes et parfois inattendues en fonction du temps passé sur la peau, du lieu, du temps: dans certaines situations la palissandre du Brésil est très présente, à d'autres moments la cannelle est plus présente, l'été et les heures chaudes ce sont les épines de pin... . Même si la formulation est plus douce ou consensuelle depuis quelques années que celle d'origine, la tenue et le sillage font de cette eau de toilette une véritable eau de parfum, portable en toute saison et en beaucoup de circonstances; . Comme Acqua di Parma, Équipage n'est pas beaucoup apprécié des personnes aux goûts ordinaires, il est même vecteur de rejets verbaux parfois agressifs; Que voulez-vous, Équipage est parfois associé dans les analyses ou les commentaires au quinquagénaire bien établi qui a réussi... Cette eau très masculine, comme le sont très généralement les eaux de Hermès, est à tester, du moins pour son originalité et la culture en parfumerie, sinon pour la porter et se distinguer.

I am going into my second cold weather season with vintage Equipage and wanted to speak on the great blending here and making of a fragrance accord. A chord in music is the harmonizing of several notes to sound a chord that is district from the single notes. As in great perfumery blending, you will be pressed to single out individual notes. As I believe Equipage is the #1 classic fougere of the past 50 years because of the exquisite accords. There are many notes but only a few accords, beautifully simplistic ! The one accord that I most love in Equipage is the leather like accord. It smells like saddles and sadle soap. I now think I can pick out the main notes of this beutifull accord that so many of us love. They are Geranium foremost, Rosewood, Lilly of the valley and a hint of pine. There is also a bit of sourness that comes from the oakmoss I guess, indistinct and beautifully blended into the whole. Of my modest collection this and Givenchy Insense I would call masterpieces of perfumery, because of the masterfull and creative blending of accords within the whole composition. PS. I have read reviews that mention leather note in the vintage. I don't see leather here or on basenotes. Am I correct in thinking there is an accord here that mimics leather ? Does anyone know for sure that the vintage has a leather note ? Jean-Claude Ellena, the main perfumer for Hermes and the new Equipage Germanium, said he tried to capture vintage Equipage 1000 times and took it on vacation to discover it, so good luck to us mere mortals... Rating: 10/10. (Vintage) Looking forward to trying Equipage Geranium, may be a substitute for vintage Equipage at times. Colin Maillard said it is a good flanker that stays true to the original. Update: I have tried the new Equipage Geranium. It is a good reformulation, I will purchase it when I run out of vintage. Ellena has not changed the original, but emphasizes Geranium. "Equipage Geranium" is closer to Vintage than currant Equipage ! God bless you. (John 3:16)

Equipage is one of those gentleman's fragrances that is more like an accessory than a fragrance - it creates an aura around the wearer does not smell like "perfume". Equipage is dignity, class and style - an elegant botanical potion, a dry, aromatic-floral-resinous-vetiver-patchouli mosaic highlighting the finest aspects of its components from Palisander through to Vetiver and Tonka, testament to the adage that true style is eternal. It's understated, inoffensive and feels niche quality. The version I have is the second version from 1989, and I've only smelled later reformulations on other people but they don't seem all that different. Fashion is ephemeral - what is fashionable inevitably becomes unfashionable, yet style remains timeless and eternal. Whereas so many lesser fragrances are trapped in the prism of time, like prehistoric insects in amber, relics of a bygone era, Equipage is of a world above the pedestrian vulgarity of fashion. The classic Hermès men’s fragrances are in a class of their own. Although Equipage, Bel Ami and Rocabar are very different fragrances their pedigree and Hermès ancestry is distinctive and one thing they have in common is that they do not smell like "perfume" - they're an accessory that envelopes their wearer in an aura of dignity and stylish elegance. There is no effective universal lexicon for communicating sensory experiences - calling this an "amber fougère" doesn't really describe it. It feels niche and natural, elegant and understated. The only thing I'm familiar with that is vaguely similar in style to Equipage is Léonard pour Homme. Equipage is not exactly a crowd pleaser and would probably not appeal to average mainstream modern tastes - which means it's not ideal for a blind buy [Batch LE2F May 1989, second version] Post-scriptum: By the way, the simplest pronunciation of Hermès for an English speaker is “Air-Mess”.