Jean Patou, Colony, Leathery Chypre, 15 ml. or 0.5 oz. Flacon, Pure Parfum Extrait, 1938, Paris, France ..

When couturier Jean Patou arrived on the Paris scene, in the 1920s, the world was changing .. especially for women. No longer corseted, bound by convention or whalebone ‘stays’, there was a spirit of freedom in the air .. and Jean Patou captured it.

He was born in 1887, in Normandy, where Jean Patou‘s father was a renowned leather tanner, known for his bookbinding skills. And it was his father who taught Jean Patou all about color.

After going to work for an uncle in the fur trade, Jean Patou launched his own venture as a dressmaker and furrier, moving into tailoring. And in 1914, just before the war broke out, he established his own couture house. Sadly, his first collection had to be mothballed: Jean Patou left Paris to serve as a captain in the French Zouave regiment, fighting as far afield as Anatolia. But in 1919, Patou returned to Paris, and did indeed launch a collection, including long-waisted shepherdess dresses. He became famous for ‘sportif chic’ .. clothes designed to move, to flutter, to flirt gorgeously .. and to show off brazenly bare legs, in short hemlines.

In 1922 .. a slight career sidetrack, perhaps .. Jean Patou opened a nightclub, with fellow designer Edward Molyneux. It was named Le Jardin de Ma Soeur (My Sister's Garden). The highly social writer Anita Loos called it ‘the most elegant place in which to greet the Paris dawn'.

From 1925, Jean Patou was also creating the most desirable of perfumes. His debut perfumes were designed to complement women with a particular hair colour: Que Sais-Je? was for brunettes, Amour Amour was for blondes, and Adieu Sagesse was for redheads. In 1927, Jean Patou also delighted women with the introduction of Huile de Chaldée, the world’s first suntan oil.

Colony by Jean Patou is a Chypre Fruity fragrance for women that was launched in 1938. The nose behind this fragrance is Henri Almeras.

"When Colony by Jean Patou was released in 1938 it was created as a nostalgic fragrance. The economy in shambles and the world was on the verge of disaster; Patou himself has been dead for two years. Everyone needed comfort, thus perfumer Henri Almeras turned to what he considered a simpler and kinder time and place: the French Colonies. Nearly 80 years later, colonialism is not exactly something that gives us the warm fuzzies, but Colony is better than politics. Much better.

"Colony by Jean Patou is famous for its pineapple note. Decades before L'artisan Ananas Fizz, Colony was a real pineapple chypre .. oak moss and all. The yearning for the tropics of yore is very different from the frothy beachy fragrances we know and love (or not) today. In her review of Colony for Perfume smellin' Things, Donna calls it a "tropical romance" and I agree. This is a picture in sepia of a walk on a fantasy beach. The sepia tone of colony develops further on skin. It's woody, dark dark green with a tinge of chypre smoke that I absolutely love. It makes you forget about the pineapple and just get lost in the sexy green leather."

Top notes are Pineapple and Ylang Ylang
Heart notes are Carnation, Iris, Oak, Vetiver, and Opoponax
Base note is Leather

Offered here is an increasingly rare bottle of this wonderful leathery tropical perfume. It is one of my personal favorites of all time, and it is sparingly that I let some of my Patou collection go! The bottle is still sealed and only a little evaporation has taken place. This perfume reminds me of all the lovely leather suitcases piled up and ready to be loaded on a big ocean going vessel headed for the tropics! There is a lovely pineapple note in it too!