Time was when he had his scent-with a masculine name: Aramis, Brut, English Leather.
And she had her fragrance-with a feminine name: Joy, L`Air du Temps, White Shoulders.
Not any more.
Now dawns the age of gender-bender scents.
She wears Passion and so does he. He splashes on Obsession for Men and she sprays herself with Obsession for Women. Both reach for a bottle labeled Tiffany when they emerge from the shower.
These are not unisex scents, but separate fragrances linked by a common name and some key ingredients.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of women`s perfumes that made their debuts with a huge advertising budget, followed a year or two later by the men`s version of the same scent.
Last year alone brought Eternity for Men, Passion for Men, Tiffany for Men, Fendi Uomo and a men`s version of Liz Claiborne called Claiborne (not Mr. Claiborne). Already on the shelves were Giorgio for Men, Obsession for Men, Gianfranco Ferre Homme, Oscar de la Renta Pour Lui and Perry Ellis for Men. Out this year are 273 for Men and Samba for Men.
In the works are men`s versions of the fabulously successful Red, as well as Guess and Ralph Lauren`s Safari.
But women, get the atomizer ready. The pendulum is swinging the other way, with men`s colognes New West, Aspen, Santa Fe and Karl Lagerfeld`s Photo all hitting the market with their ”For Women” mates.
”This is the next step from the unisex craze,” said Annette Green, executive director of the New York-based Fragrance Foundation, an education and promotional organization. ”I think that the sensory feeling that fragrances engender has moved beyond masculine and feminine.”
Shopping for fragrances is now a ”mutual adventure” that men and women share, Green said. ”They are buying fragrances to complement each other.”
Sometimes called gender-counterpart scents, these fragrances have awakened the once-staid men`s market and toppled many top-selling colognes from their perches.
At stake for all these companies is a greater share of the $4 billion in annual sales reported by the industry in 1989.
Josef Schreick, vice president of marketing and creative services for Aramis Inc., said, ”Aramis, as a company, has been trying very hard to hold its share of the market. It`s been really tough with this economy and with so many new launches of these scents for men.”
The company, which has only marketed men`s products, including the longtime No. 1 scent, Aramis, is fighting back by taking on the crowded women`s perfume field with New West Skinscent for Her.
The women`s version of New West, marketed like its masculine counterpart as a California-trendy, outdoor-active scent, is being sold exclusively in California until spring, when it will be available in 16 cities nationwide.
”When we launched New West for men, it was with the ideal of continuing along the path that we had chosen for the past 27 years in the men`s field,” said Schreick. ”The scent was an enormous hit, and we found that women liked the fragrance because of its West Coast mind-set. It made an awful lot of sense that we would develop a women`s scent that fit into this mind-set.”
The women`s scent will be lighter, with more fruit and floral ingredients, and will cost $45 for 3.4 fluid ounces, compared with $38 for the men`s version.
It`s not unusual for a men`s cologne to be popular with women. In the 1960s and `70s, teenage girls and some women doused themselves with colognes such as 4711, Canoe and English Leather. And industry research indicates that some women still prefer to wear men`s colognes such as Grey Flannel, because they are often lighter and less expensive than perfumes.
Few men, if any, would confess to wearing a fragrance that is solely for women. However, Obsession for Men and Eternity for Men are among the five best-selling men`s colognes. Elizabeth Taylor`s well-known Passion for Men has enjoyed the sweet smell of success as well.
John Clayton, 29, of Maple Shade, N.J., received a bottle of Passion for Men last year and now wears the scent regularly.
”I like it because it is not as heavy or woodsy and citrusy as most men`s colognes,” said Clayton. ”Also, a lot of women said that it smelled good, so I kept on buying it.”
Said the Fragrance Foundation`s Green: ”Men have become more comfortable with the soft power of fragrance. The word soft has always had a negative impact on men, but another side has been emerging in the last few years. Men don`t want to lose their image of masculinity and power, but they are willing, at least in fragrance, to soften and deal with images that are not necessarily macho.”
There is more to it than that, of course. Surveys show that about 60 percent of all men`s scents are purchased for men by women.
Companies hook the woman with brand identification, then market the men`s versions a little differently to appeal to the male, according to marketing strategists.
”That provides us with an opportunity to get double duty out of a celebrity or a designer,” said a marketing spokesman for Passion.
”Capitalize on your initial investment and initial consumer recognition. Make as much use of the name as possible.”
Fred Hayman, founder of the Giorgio empire, said, ”Marketing fragrances for women and men under one name, as I have done with 273, occurs for one primary reason-brand identification. The 273 for women was such a success, it seemed only logical to launch a men`s fragrance under the same 273 banner.”
Both scents were packaged in pyramid-shape containers, but the women`s came in a clear glass bottle and the men`s in black plastic.
Red for Men, to be launched by Giorgio Inc. in 1,000 stores for Father`s Day, will be packaged differently from the women`s version, and the advertisements will be geared specifically to men.
”We have to make it masculine in the way we communicate the brand to men,” said Jackie Cohen, spokeswoman for Giorgio Inc.
Red for Men, she said, will appeal to men`s attraction to red-from a bright red sportscar to red power ties to a woman wearing red lipstick.
Some scents, such as Obsession and Eternity, are bottled and packaged the same for men and women, although the women`s scent is invariably more expensive.
Comparisons among a few of the scents show that, in general, the women`s are heavy and sweet, more floral in nature, while the men`s are lighter, subtler.
Passion for Women, for example, smells like a flower garden in full bloom, while Passion for Men smells like a room that has a few flowers in it. Industry insiders trace the path of acceptance of the current crop of gender-bender fragrances to the extraordinary success in the `70s of Jovan Musk Oil for Men and Jovan Musk Oil for Women.
Victor Zast, senior vice president of corporate marketing of Quintessence Inc., which produces Jovan, said that those products shook up the industry.
Sold as a mass-market product at drugstores and midprice department stores, Jovan Musk was an instant rage. The company quickly followed up with other colognes for men and women, including Man and Woman, which were sold in sets with interlocking bottles. Woman remains on the market. Man was discontinued several years ago.
The Paris house of Chanel launched what is believed to be the first crossover scent, Chanel Pour Monsieur, in 1966, 38 years after the debut of Chanel No. 5.
