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Classic Colognes: Knize Ten by Knize

knize ten by knize

Knize Ten (Knize) ★★★★★ amber leather

As Alphonse Allais put it, “As time passes, one meets fewer and fewer people who knew Napoleon.” Knize Ten, like the sole veteran of the Grande Armée who lived long enough to be photographed, must feel terribly lonely these days, for it is the only survivor of the androgynous, reckless, dandified twenties leathers. Its elder by five years, Tabac Blond (1919), recently died a death at the hands of IFRA regulations and Caron perfumer Richard Fraysse, and if you look around there are no pre-WWII leathers left standing: Kobako, Shocking and no doubt many others, all gone. (Cuir de Russie does not count in this context, because it is primarily a stupendous iris floral with a leather accent.) Knize Ten was composed by François Coty and Vincent Roubert, respectively the man who invented all of perfumery and the man who did Iris Gris. For a long period Ten was out of stock, the firm did not know when it would come back, etc. and I feared the worst. I cannot vouch for the exact resemblance of today’s formula to the original. What I can say is (a) it smells wonderful, with all the proper requisites of a leather, including smoky and amber notes firmly in place, (b) contains a splendid strawberry top note, which, by a classic piece of perfumery misdirection, kisses you on the lips just as you focus on the dry, dark background, (c) goes on forever in a completely civilized manner, and (d) does not cost the earth. Let me put it simply: everyone should own this perfume, because there is only one like it.

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