Dana – kira a. gold

*Cut cube bottle with black tall top, on photo of Zsa Zsa in diamonds. The eau was originally chartreuse, mine has turned amber.*

I was feeling kind of nostalgic and reached for this one this morning–originally out in the late 1940’s, had a heyday in the late ’60s when Zsa Zsa Gabor became the face, and then relaunched by Dana in the late ’90s.

ZigZag is a bit of a shapeshifter, opening with fascinating sniffy green tarragon amid some orangeade, then sliding into blowsy jasmine for an hour before lying on the skin with a dust of indulgent powder that has nothing of the top notes at all.
There’s a timeless cheeky pretension to it that I love–ultra feminine but cheap in the best way, like false eyelashes from the dollar store–and I bet it will have another resurgence, maybe late in this decade.

More nostalgia, with no pretense whatsoever–from Joni’s first album, 1968.

tabu edgy — Vintage 80’s Tabu violin bottle on a retro 60’s print with a femme fatale in black gloves. The illustrator, René Gruau left the Italian aristocracy for Paris, supporting himself and his mother at age 14 by selling drawings to fashion magazines. He became the advertising director Christian Dior in 1947, and is also known for his posters of The Moulin Rouge, and Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.

A stray cat in heat reeking of orange and cloves.

Tabu was that night you wore thigh-high stockings but forgot your fake ID, so someone’s older sister gave you rootbeer schnapps and after the party you watched the sunrise drinking Constant Comment tea with the guy your friend wanted.

I wore this once in high school and the boy who never noticed me asked my name, and the skirt I’d worn all year got measured with a ruler twice. My mother took the bottle away and told me I could have it back when I went to college.

Tabu came out in 1933, designed to be “the fragrance of a whore.” Jazz was taking Paris by storm then, led by Django Reinhard at the Hot Club.
Here’s Gretchen Menn’s take on Minor Swing.