When one crosses the threshold into fall, it doesn’t always feel like fall. There are days when the sun is strong, and the heat builds like it does back in summer. The idea of a heavy and musky cologne at such a time feels as out of place as a wool cardigan on a hot July day. This makes fragrance a tricky thing, as I tend to be seasonally oriented when it comes to choosing what to wear on my skin.
The solution is to find something that straddles both summer and fall, and for me that has been the fig. As much a part of high summer as it is the harvest season, the fig is a transitional fragrance that can swerve to sweet and fruity, while being reigned in with something more sharply aromatic. That marriage can be found in Diana Vreeland’s ‘Staggeringly Beautiful’.
A little bit of background on how I came to be in possession of such a glorious gift: I’d had this on my wish list for a little while. It was an impulse add, an extravagant and lavish wish of high-hopes that I never quite expected to receive, as much as I would have liked to receive it. It was also a risky blind-non-buy selection – I usually don’t ask for something I’ve never tried, fragrance-wise, because that can be crazy dangerous. Notes and scents listed out on paper are often nothing like the actual aroma that the final combination might produce. (Luckily enough, some previous blind-buys have turned out to have very happy endings, such as Viktor & Rolf’s ‘Spicebomb’ and Tom Ford’s ‘Oud Minerale’ – still, it’s a risky business.)
I wasn’t expecting anyone to choose such a lovely item for this year’s uneventful birthday, so when I opened up the pretty bag that Sherri and Skip had bestowed upon me and found this spectacular item, my heart jumped – as much for the perfume itself as for the touching generosity and thought that went into it. Sherri always knows the perfect gift to pick out, when even I’ve forgotten what I really wanted. She has a sixth sense about such things, the way she can pick out a pregnant woman practically on the morning-after. It’s also a testament to my friendship with both Sherri and Skip that they were kind enough to deliver this magnificent present.
As for the fragrance itself, it joins a small but beloved collection of Diana Vreeland perfumes on my shelf: ‘Vivaciously Bold‘ and ‘Absolutely Vital‘. This third jewel in the Vreeland crown is the missing piece to a glorious triumvirate. ‘Vivaciously Bold’ is the bright spring awakening that often accompanies us to our Memorial Day adventures in Ogunquit; ‘Absolutely Vital’ is the winter sandalwood that has been present at holiday gatherings; and ‘Staggeringly Beautiful’ is the summer/fall beauty that will now remind me of happy power dinners with friends, planning what is going on with this very website.
‘Staggeringly Beautiful’ carries some of the same gorgeous threads that weave their way through the Vreeland perfume line, but avoids the cloying florals that some of those offerings fall prey to (which is why I will only have three). It opens sweetly with fig and citrus – a blast of fruity rich decadence – which is the perfect summer celebration. There is a green freshness that carries through, keeping things from going too sweet, and after an initial blast of some potent sillage, it dries down to something much closer to the skin – perfect for those days that are hotter and more humid than you think fall could ever be. Elements of bergamot and daffodil temper the ripeness of the fig with spring-like elements, hanging onto a bit of the sunnier seasons the way fall sometimes does. This is a beautiful transitional scent for the tricky time between summer and fall – many thanks to Sherri and Skip for bringing it into my world.
