Fracas is a 1948 perfume created by French perfumer

Germaine Cellier Germaine Cellier (1909–1976) was a French perfumer. She was known for creating bold, pioneering fragrances such as ''Fracas'' and ''Bandit''. Cellier was also one of the first prominent female perfumers, at a time when the industry was dominated ...

for French fashion designer

Robert Piguet Robert Piguet (1898 – 1953) was a Swiss-born, Paris-based fashion designer who is mainly remembered for training Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy. The Piguet fashion house ran from 1933 to 1951; since then, the brand Robert Piguet has been ...

. It is based on the scent of

tuberose ''Agave amica'', formerly ''Polianthes tuberosa'', the tuberose, is a perennial plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, extracts of which are used as a note in perfumery. Now widely grown as an ornamental plant, the species was or ...

, a pungent small white flower (unrelated to

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

). A landmark fragrance, it has spawned many imitators and as of 2021 has been in production for more than 70 years later.

Background

Cellier, then one of the only women working as a "nose" in formal perfumery, dedicated it to actress

Edwige Feuillère Edwige Feuillère (born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti; October 29, 1907 – November 13, 1998) was a French stage and film actress. Biography She was born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti to an Italian architect father and an Alsace-born mo ...

, who had been the object of scandal when she appeared nude in the 1935 film ''

Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...

''.

Fragrance notes

The fragrance is known as a tuberose powerhouse, but other ingredients amplify the effect. Reviewing the fragrance for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Chandler Burr Chandler Burr is an American journalist, author, and museum curator. Early life and education Born in Chicago and raised in Washington, D.C., Burr graduated from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. He began his journalism career in 1987 as a ...

detailed its notes:

"Cellier packed her formula with Indian tuberose absolute, which gives it huge power and 'sillage' (the olfactory trail)....To achieve an even more lifelike, more raw tuberose (this flower smells of armpit, flesh and decay due to heavy molecules called indoles; jasmine is similarly loaded with them), she used an even larger quantity of Tunisian orange blossom absolute, plus some astronomically expensive French jasmine and Italian iris root butter. Add natural violet leaf to give the sweet, heavy scent a refreshingly harsh, wet green aspect, iris for a woody depth, synthetic civet (the smell of unwashed construction worker) for power, the synthetics C18 for an unctuous, milky, soft tropical quality and methyl anthranilate for fizz."

Since inception, it has been reformulated and as of 2008 perfumer Aurélien Guichard was responsible for the newer versions.

Reception

Fracas's fans include

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...

, who said of the fragrance, "No one can ignore you when you're wearing it, yet it's not annoying. It smells to me like a baby's head, a field of dreamy white meadow flowers, and a touch of sex." Chandler Burr gave Fracas five stars and called it "transcendent", saying it has "a signature, a persistence on skin, and a diffusion that are – all three – astonishing. hat trick." In '' Perfumes: The A-Z Guide'',

Luca Turin Luca Turin (born 20 November 1953) is a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in bioelectronics, the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry. Early life and education Turin was born in Beirut, Lebanon on 20 November ...

gave Fracas five stars, signaling "masterpiece". Writing in the first part of the 21st century, he noted that recent reformulations had brought the scent closer to Cellier's original, as compared with "threadbare" versions sold in the 1980s.

Influence

Perfume line founder

Frédéric Malle Pierre 'Frédéric' Serge Louis Jacques Malle (born 17 July 1962 in Paris, France) is a French businessman, author and '' 'Editeur de Parfums' '' who founded the perfume house Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle in 2000. Personal life Frédér ...

of Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle has said, "Every single person making a tuberose fragrance is trying to knock off the classic, which is Fracas." His line's contribution to the genre is Carnal Flower.

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's celebrity scent

Truth or Dare Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, ...

is also based on Fracas, which the singer's mother wore.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fracas (perfume) 20th-century perfumes Designer perfumes