When I first started keeping notes on the fragrances I tested, I often used the shorthand "generic department store scent", and I'm sure many of you perfumistas know exactly what I mean.
I talk frequently about perfumes that I find pretty but essentially dull - scents that have nothing much to distinguish them from the zillions of other pretty but essentially dull fragrances on the market. The ad might more appropriately show a young lady in a tasteful summer dress at a garden party, with a sparkle in her eye, perhaps, but still, well-mannered. It is not at all the girly-silly scent I feared it might be when I first heard the name and saw the picture of the bottle with its pink juice (you can see a closeup here), but nor is it anything like the the bold sort of fragrance implied by the woman with the boots and whip in the ad. It does intensify slightly after an hour or so, but trust me, you'd needn't be a leather fiend to like Kelly Calèche, and leather fiends may find it too civilized for their liking. If you didn't know there was leather, you might not notice it, but it is there if you go looking for it: as velvety-soft and mild as leather can be and still be leather.
There is another floral note that I recognize but can't seem to call to mind, and I've been waiting in vain all week for the name to pop into my head. Everything about it is soft: the mimosa, the iris, the rose, and I can't smell the tuberose or lily of the valley at all. The heart is a blended floral, muted but not quite sheer. There is a smidgen of something fruity, almost like peach or apricot, and it seems to fade away and then reassert itself repeatedly over the next few hours. For a few moments, it calls to mind the bright, grapefruit-y effervescence of Rose Ikebana, then it gets a teensy bit darker, with the lightest possible touch of something smoky and dry, and this stage reminds me vaguely of Osmanthe Yunnan. Kelly Calèche starts off with sparkling citrus. (quote and notes via Women's Wear Daily, ) The notes for the floral leather scent include iris, lily of the valley, mimosa, tuberose and climbing rose. Jean Claude Ellena, who frequently cites a book as inspiration for his fragrances, mentioned for this one Jean Giono's Jean le Bleu, about a village cobbler and his son (Giono was also named as an inspiration for Terre d'Hermès), and particularly a passage about "making soles in angel leather". Kelly Calèche was named for the Kelly handbag and the original Calèche perfume. Kelly Calèche was the perfume release I was awaiting most eagerly this year. I adore Hermès, and I adore the work of Jean Claude Ellena, and I thought last year's Terre d'Hermès was brilliant. Kelly Calèche, which launched recently at the new Hermès boutique on Wall Street, is the brand's first major feminine fragrance since Jean Claude Ellena took over as house perfumer.
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