Femme Rochas Rochas
Femme Rochas by Rochas is a Chypre Fruity fragrance for women. Femme Rochas was launched in 1944. The nose behind this fragrance is Edmond Roudnitska. Top notes are Plum, Peach, Cinnamon, Apricot, Brazilian Rosewood, Bergamot and Lemon; middle notes are Cloves, Carnation, Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Rosemary, Iris and Jasmine; base notes are Oakmoss, Leather, Benzoin, Amber, Patchouli, Musk and Vanilla.
Femme Rochas EDT available at a price – 4 EUR/ml.
Edmond Roudnitska made Femme Rochas in Paris during the War in 1943. Femme represents a real masterpiece with its warmth of a woman’s gentle skin and dense note of plum. The composition is based on the harmony of aldehides, fruit, wood, and musk notes. The dryness of chypre notes is softened by the purple plum. The richness of tropical fruits is followed by the rich scent of sandal. Femme Rochas is a splendid perfume which is not aimed at every person, more at a femme fatale. The perfume was reconstructed in 1989 and has become lighter and more gourmand thanks to the peach note in harmony with plum. The notes are: bergamot, peach, pear, rose, an immortal, jasmine, ylang-ylang, grey amber, musk, oakmoss and sandal. The lovely bottle recalls a woman’s curves.
There are times when you contemplate a fragrance and realize that it was painted with the brush of an irrepressible personality, larger than life, more enduring than the daily grind. Femme by Rochas, a gorgeous classic chypre, is one such fragrance, if only because it is Melina Mercouri’s signature scent. Even Melina’s name fits the bill: it means “honey.”
Melina was a Greek actress and politician, known from her cradle almost as much as she was the granddaughter of a famous mayor and the wife of the famous French-American director and McCarthy “victim” Jules Dassin. And her passionate campaign to return the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles to their homeland has secured her a sweet spot in our hearts. Those who knew her or even glimpsed her rich, passionate life and personality cannot forget her, even though it has been over a decade since she died.
And while Femme was perhaps the first decisive step into gourmand territory (by its creator’s own admission: “very gourmand, very refined”) with its delightful fruity notes of juicy plum and peach, he laid them on a bed of rather poignant ambergris and oakmoss with powdery notes that hinted at the hardships of its time of birth: World War II. Along with the initial citron-aldehyde burst, there is a dryness, and you will have a hard time making out the individual notes as the symphony unfolds on your skin.
Edmond Rudnicka used a methylionone compound that he had smelled in a forgotten barrel in a dye factory near which he worked during the war rationing days in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944; it was then that the couturier Marcel Rocha came to him to commission a feminine fragrance for his beautiful young bride, Hélène. And it is this that gives Femme its sugar-plum undertone, which contributes to its lush sensuality, which can be seen by looking at the curved bottle, originally packaged in a lace box.
A sensuality that Melina was not without. In one of her most memorable films, Jules Dassin’s Phaedra, she starred alongside longtime Perfume Shrine magazine favorite Anthony Perkins as the wife of a tycoon who falls in love with her stepson, immortalizing the ancient Greek myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra… a story of love and death, ερως και θανατος, like all Greek fairy tales…
There is something tense and dramatic about her persona: her tall, lithe body moves with the grace of a cat, but at the same time the completely tragic demeanor of a Hecuba or a Clytemnestra, combined with sensitivity and what you sense as a refusal of tenderness. Her huge black eyes, burning coals beneath a tuft of blond hair, stare at you like cosmic lights.
The following excerpt from the 1949 production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she sings Manos Hadjidakis’ “Paper Moon” as Blanche Dubois, testifies to the power of her penetrating gaze, which pierces your soul in the same way that Femme does.
In 1989, Olivier Cresp reinterpreted Femme, intertwining a bold note of caraway with feminine sweat and powdered sugar, lightening the earthiness of the base. I really like the new version for its deep butteriness of cinnamon, a light note of cloves and compote with fudge and brandy, and a louder drumbeat of the very familiar thick amber base of the 80s. While the older version (circa 1960s) is more feminine and restrained, similar to how Melina was provocative in her private life but without the debauchery in her public persona, the modern eau de toilette is a true luxury bombshell with lush tendencies but without the retro feel, and is also less spicy.
