Wwddw?

[Tom_Ford]

Ok, dumb thread title. I'm new to these forums but I wanted to kick it off with something imaginative.

I'm a big Mad Men fan, and since coming to the board, I started thinking: What Would Don Draper Wear?

My choices:

Tom Ford Tuscan Leather
Castle & Forbes Forbes of Forbes
(those are on my personal list of favorites as well)
Penhaligon's Opus 1870

What do you guys think? It has to be sophisticated without being too "old money," imo. But it also has to be expensive and smell that way.

 

[vertigo12314]

Knize ten or Creed Vintage Tabarome.

 

[Luc]

I'd say something "modern" in the '50s

Brut, Old Spice...

 

[The Knize]

Dunhill 1934, or maybe Creed Vetiver 1948. I cannot remember how far back some scents go. Not Pino Sylvestre, I do not think. OS makes sense. K10 might be too cool for him. Creed VT might fit the bill. Be pretty cool of him if he wore something from Floris or Pens, too, but maybe he is not that cool. When did Guerlain Vetiever come out?

 

[StylinLA]

As a huge fan of scents and Mad Men, I've seen a few threads on this.

There are two ways to answer it--

- Literally- what scents were available in that time frame that he might wear.
- Figuratively- what scents now available have a kind of Mad Men "energy."

First, literally, I think he wore Old Spice. Don is not given to many frou frou things, and nicer scents for men in that time frame were pretty elite. While Don looks "stylish" by today's standards, fedoras, suits, white shirts with cufflinks were just a uniform in his business. Unless Betty or one of his trysts were to give him some special fragrance, I doubt he'd give it much thought. Also, in one episode, a woman told him he smelled like jasmine, and I believe that is a primary ingredient of Old Spice and Dunhill '34.

As a wet shaver and a Basenoter, I keep an eye out for any tell tale clues in shots of him shaving, his dresser, etc, and I've never seen anything that resembled a cologne bottle. One Basenoter thought he might have seen a Caron Pour un Homme bottle on his dresser, but resolution wasn't high enough to be sure.

Roger's tastes seem more refined and perhaps a bit elitist. I could see him wearing Dunhill '34, Chanel Pour Monsieur or even Habit Rouge now that the show is set a couple of years after HR was introduced. I don't claim to be a historian of that time frame, but my general memories from the early 60s, and through my dad's grooming habits, were that department stores did not yet have large mens cologne counters we now take for granted. I don't think men's scents really started exploding until the late 60's through mid 70s.

Some of the biggest name scents that were available in the time frame of the show that are still around:

Habit Rouge (1965)
Caron Pour un Homme (1934)
Dunhill '34 (1934)
Chanel Pour Monsiuer (1955)
Knize 10 (1924)
Aramis (1965)
Brut (1964)
English Leather (1949)
Eucris (1912)
Moustache (1949)
Mouchoir de Monsieur (1904)
Floris No 89 (1950)
Old Spice (1937)
Pino Silverstre (1955)
Guerlain Vetiver (1957)
Creed Vetiver (1948)
Creed Royal English Leather (1781)
Creed Royal Scottish Lavender (1856)
Creed Tabarome (1875)

(I listed the Creeds, though I have my doubts those were readily available for purchase in early 60s New York.)

Now figuratively. Below are some of the scents that I think very much have the Mad Men feel regardless of when produced. I could envision Don or Roger wearing any of these.

*****Creed Vetiver '48
*****Brooks Brothers 1818
****Creed Bois du Portugal
**Penhaligons Sartorial
****Boucheron Pour Homme
****Habit Rouge
***PS by Paul Sebastian
**Odori Tabacco
**Santos de Cartier Concentre

 

[tehtimmeh]

He clearly wears Vintage Tabarome. There's only two other possible options:

Habit Rouge
Creed Vetiver (1948)

I still stand by VT.

 

[The Knize]

As a huge fan of scents and Mad Men, I've seen a few threads on this.

There are two ways to answer it--

- Literally- what scents were available in that time frame that he might wear.
- Figuratively- what scents now available have a kind of Mad Men "energy."

First, literally, I think he wore Old Spice. Don is not given to many frou frou things, and nicer scents for men in that time frame were pretty elite. While Don looks "stylish" by today's standards, fedoras, suits, white shirts with cufflinks were just a uniform in his business. Unless Betty or one of his trysts were to give him some special fragrance, I doubt he'd give it much thought. Also, in one episode, a woman told him he smelled like jasmine, and I believe that is a primary ingredient of Old Spice and Dunhill '34.

As a wet shaver and a Basenoter, I keep an eye out for any tell tale clues in shots of him shaving, his dresser, etc, and I've never seen anything that resembled a cologne bottle. One Basenoter thought he might have seen a Caron Pour un Homme bottle on his dresser, but resolution wasn't high enough to be sure.

Roger's tastes seem more refined and perhaps a bit elitist. I could see him wearing Dunhill '34, Chanel Pour Monsieur or even Habit Rouge now that the show is set a couple of years after HR was introduced. I don't claim to be a historian of that time frame, but my general memories from the early 60s, and through my dad's grooming habits, were that department stores did not yet have large mens cologne counters we now take for granted. I don't think men's scents really started exploding until the late 60's through mid 70s.

Some of the biggest name scents that were available in the time frame of the show that are still around:

Habit Rouge (1965)
Caron Pour un Homme (1934)
Dunhill '34 (1934)
Chanel Pour Monsiuer (1955)
Knize 10 (1924)
Aramis (1965)
Brut (1964)
English Leather (1949)
Eucris (1912)
Moustache (1949)
Mouchoir de Monsieur (1904)
Floris No 89 (1950)
Old Spice (1937)
Pino Silverstre (1955)
Guerlain Vetiver (1957)
Creed Vetiver (1948)
Creed Royal English Leather (1781)
Creed Royal Scottish Lavender (1856)
Creed Tabarome (1875)

(I listed the Creeds, though I have my doubts those were readily available for purchase in early 60s New York.)

Now figuratively. Below are some of the scents that I think very much have the Mad Men feel regardless of when produced. I could envision Don or Roger wearing any of these.

*****Creed Vetiver '48
*****Brooks Brothers 1818
****Creed Bois du Portugal
**Penhaligons Sartorial
****Boucheron Pour Homme
****Habit Rouge
***PS by Paul Sebastian
**Odori Tabacco
**Santos de Cartier Concentre

Great post! You are right about jasmine=Old Spice. Good catch!

 

[StylinLA]

Great post! You are right about jasmine=Old Spice. Good catch!

I went on a bit... but these are both big interests of mine.

I would be most interested in hearing if any of the guys in here who were of age and stylin' in the 60s have any memories of the men's fragrance scene from then.

I just don't have a good grip on how readily available many of those scents I listed were in the early 60s. My guess is you had to go out of your way to find them. We're all used to department stores with a large range of designer and stores like Sephora. My memories are mostly from my dad who liked to wear scents. I remember Brut, British Sterling, English Leather- but I think he got those in drugstores. My first memory of a designer scent in department store was Aramis.

I've always had an interest in hearing when the first time anyone saw a Creed for sale was. They claim this long history. I don't doubt that some aspect of their company was involved with making frags going back years, but I've never heard much their retail history (i.e. when did they become easly available in US). Everyone I've run across seems to have bought their first Creed in the 80s.

 

[The Knize]

I went on a bit... but these are both big interests of mine.

I would be most interested in hearing if any of the guys in here who were of age and stylin' in the 60s have any memories of the men's fragrance scene from then.

I just don't have a good grip on how readily available many of those scents I listed were in the early 60s. My guess is you had to go out of your way to find them. We're all used to department stores with a large range of designer and stores like Sephora. My memories are mostly from my dad who liked to wear scents. I remember Brut, British Sterling, English Leather- but I think he got those in drugstores. My first memory of a designer scent in department store was Aramis.

I've always had an interest in hearing when the first time anyone saw a Creed for sale was. They claim this long history. I don't doubt that some aspect of their company was involved with making frags going back years, but I've never heard much their retail history (i.e. when did they become easly available in US). Everyone I've run across seems to have bought their first Creed in the 80s.

I think the first English Leather I got--must have been in the 5th or 6th grade came from a department store, or at least something more exclusive than a drug store. I think the same was true of, say, Jade East and Canoe. And I am even more sure that Brut started out as way more upscale that it is now. Be interesting to know when English Leather was first sold in a drug store.

Hard to say I was really "stylin' in the 60s" in the 5th and 6th grade, and later in the 60s, it was more freak stuff for me. Actually I think people forget that Herbal Essence Shampoo was something that lots of folks men and women smelled of. It had tenacity!

 

[StylinLA]

Actually I think people forget that Herbal Essence Shampoo was something that lots of folks men and women smelled of. It had tenacity!

LOL. I remember that stuff.

 

[Aaron01]

I've always had an interest in hearing when the first time anyone saw a Creed for sale was. They claim this long history. I don't doubt that some aspect of their company was involved with making frags going back years, but I've never heard much their retail history (i.e. when did they become easly available in US). Everyone I've run across seems to have bought their first Creed in the 80s.

There was a thread with vintage Creed scents on basenotes, probably from the 60s-70s. The scents had generic names, but they're apparantly just earlier versions of some that are available now.

I don't think Creed had much of a retail presence back then and most of their scents were just bespoke for special customers.