Shoe Store Perfume and My Scents Memory
The Fragrance Foundation Awards, 2024
Attending the Fragrance Foundation Awards- the FiFi’s- on this past Wednesday, I was particularly enthralled to see the Women’s Luxury Fragrance of the Year honors go to Valentino’s Donna Born in Roma, created by master perfumers Honorine Blanc and Amandine Clerc-Marie.
I was unfamiliar with this hot new fragrance but wondered:
Could it be Shoe Store Perfume?
What?
Shoe Store Perfume was the best fragrance I ever wore, my favorite women’s scent of all time.
It wasn’t actually labeled Shoe Store Perfume.
I just called it that, because it was a gift-with-purchase given away at the opening of a frankly cheesy shoe store on West 34th Street, across from Macy’s, a million years ago when I was a teenager.
Every time I dabbed it on, there was a positive reaction. “You smell so good!” “What are you wearing?” “What is that delicious fragrance?”
Shoe Store Perfume.
It was floral, not spicy, woody, or citrusy, and not reminiscent of a single bloom. It was complicated, with unique top notes and base notes. It was long-lasting. Whatever essential oils made up its ingredients, the end product was…
