Aramis the Immortal

Reading that Aramis is defunct is like hearing that Bond is dead.

It isn’t every day (or even year) that I wear Aramis, but then I don’t watch too many Bond movies either. All the same, knowing it’s no longer around leaves a hole in the heart, a sad memory of an old friend who’s no longer with us.

He was no casual acquaintance that you’d just pass in the street and say Hi. Aramis was a masterpiece. It was Bernard Chant’s Immortal as they say in chess, an almost Platonic form of the Leather Chypre.

Aramis may have hailed from the days of dodgy fashion; flares, kipper ties, corduroy — but WOW did they make good scent back then!

I have a bottle from around 2010 which is good, but the vintage After Shave is marvelous; shapely, vibrant and poised — it lasts all day and doesn’t put a foot wrong.

Bernard Chant

Bernard Chant made 14 perfumes in his career.

Some people do that in a year.

He was a top perfumer, and given time and space for his craft it’s no wonder he signed off some classics; just look at his greatest hits :

• Aramis

• Aromatics Elixir

• Cabochard

• Devin

• Halston

There is more quality here than you’ll find in a many an oeuvre.

But because they’re Chypres from another era, nobody under pension age will touch them.

I asked Duck Duck Go for the

ten best fragrances for men of all time.

This is what it returned :

• Sauvage

• Acqua di Giò

• Eternity for Men

• Eros

• Polo Blue

• Obsession for Men

• Bleu de Chanel

• Terre d’Hermès

• Aventus

• Gucci Guilty pour Homme

(This list is bullshit - AI hallucinating. If you write a comma after for men you get a different result. But that’s another issue.)

It’s true these scents are popular, but it’s debatable they are the best. Some of them are quite poor in my opinion.

It’s also doubtful they are the best of all time because a different worded search will include Kouros (1981), Eau Sauvage (1966) and Habit Rouge (1965).

These old timers are still around in one form or another, but Aramis was axed at the age of 60.

And now, as these monuments slip the collective memory, the default setting of masculine scent is getting shrill and superficial.

Some of them feel like the aggressive mask of a frightened and confused inner child.

By contrast, Aramis was a deeply rooted portrayal of mature masculinity — something that’s rarely found in the public sphere these days.

So it’s no surprise it’s gone, it didn’t reflect the times.