The Old Lady Perfume Manifesto

Woman w/Veil on 5th Ave. Diane Arbus 1968

{Side note: OMG let me finally post something here! Been very busy working and with life in general, I attempt posting but only save them to drafts....maybe if I begin posting again I'll get back into the groove}

Old Lady Perfume and Old Ladies I Have Known

What is old lady perfume?

Ah, the dreaded old lady perfume phenomenon. Where to begin?

Before becoming a fume freak, if you had asked me about old lady perfume, I'd say something that smelled old fashioned and/or something that my mother or grandmother had worn or would have worn.

Does this Chantilly look old lady to you?

Ask me now and I couldn't name an old lady perfume. I don't really know any old ladies. Old ladies today aren't the same as old ladies of yesterday. You don't see many donning blue hair anymore, lol. When I was a child our neighbor, Gladys, had blue hair, I even told her so. There was a woman who worked at the library who was a friend of my paternal grandmother, Liz Mann, my father acted like she was the town spinster. He would say, "Liz never married...." perhaps she was attractive when she was younger. When I was 10 or 11 I was an avid reader & lover of books, my father introduced me to her and I remember visiting her at her home (an apartment as neat as a pin with doilies on the tables and furniture) for afternoon tea which involved real china and all. She'd hook me up with books at the library and send me gifts in the mail for Christmas and my birthday. But I don't recall Liz wearing perfume.

The only grandmother I knew was my maternal grandmother, "Auntie Nana" as I called her, I must have mixed her up with one of my aunts and the name stuck. BTW my aunt, my mother's only sister, was allergic to perfumes and didn't wear or own any. I can't really remember any actual perfumes associate with my Auntie Nana, I remember the names but I can't conjure up the scent in my mind. Avon Cotillion, Topaze* Houbgaint's Chantilly, Helena Rubenstien's Heaven Scent, which she gave me a bottle, along with the usual avon age approiate perfumes: Sweet Honesty, Delicate Daisies and such.  My Auntie Nana was very fond of perfume, she had a couple of cabinets full of perfumes, soaps, powders and such. The cabinets in her bathroom and the scent of that room will be in another post. I do remember her always keeping a handkerchief on her person, lightly sprayed with perfume which she tucked in her bra.

My paternal grandmother passed before I was born. All I know about her are a few things my mother told me: she loved perfumes and cosmetics, face cream, face cream, face cream. She was an attractive woman, she was voted most beautiful in her high school class-"It was a very small class." my mother would say if my father brought that up during a fight. Small class or not, I've seen her photos and she was beautiful. She would also use a whole box of Bell's Seasoning on the Thanksgiving turkey, which I'm reminded of every time I see a box. My mother was the opposite, very light handed with the spices. I wonder how that Belled up turkey would have tasted? Back on topic, you know what kills me? During WWII my father was in France. Guess what he brought home? Perfume. Probably for my grandmother, her sister, my mother (they weren't married or engaged at the time but they had dated and wrote back and forth) and whoever else. Where are the leftovers now? I have poked around in his duffel bag, foot locker and haven't found any.


As for today the only ladies I know who come close to being "old lady" are more of eccentric older women. Broadway Betty, her real name is Barbara. She wears a blond bouffant wig with her dark hair showing through in the back, it looks similar to a birds nest on the back of her neck. She must get a new wig every so often, they start off looking good (as good as a bouffant wig could look) then after a month or so the birds begin their work. She also wears heavy, bright blue eyeshadow and tight pants. She must have been a go-go dancer back in the day. I don't see her much anymore, she got kicked out of my work (she was a customer) for alleged solicitation. Occasionally I see her waltzing up and down Broadway. In fact, earlier today I saw her strolling along, birds' next popping out of the back and all.
 
At work I do encounter many older women, co-workers and customers. A week ago I worked a party which was comprised of a couple of retirement and nursing home groups. Did not really get any whiffs of perfume off any of them. I have worked similar parties before and recall smelling mainly on the shrill side scents, wild guess would be possibly Liz Taylor or Estee Lauder (no offense to fans of those frags). As for co-workers, I am the 4th youngest female there so there's plenty of older women, although not many carry sillage. My BBF rocks Angel on a daily basis and she's close to 60-she doesn't divulge her age much, nor does she divulge the name of her perfume, only to me and that was because she thought her most recent bottle smelled different. Once I became accustomed to it-it was obvious, no use in trying to keep that a secret. Another woman, age 73, wears Paul Sebastian's Design, it smells fantastic on her, I would have guessed it was a chypre. Several slather themselves with the Bath and Body Works lotions, anti-bacterial types and regular hand lotions. Meh. Another wears Cartier's Baiser Voile, smells great on her, horrible on me. One loves Shalimar cologne-the round bottle with the pointy top. Unfortunately I rarely smell it off her.