Piccadilly '69

Piccadilly '69 is the third fragrance from the actor Richard E. Grant, made with the perfumer Alienor Massenet in Paris and launched in 2016. The brief is autobiographical and unusually specific: in May 1969, aged twelve and newly arrived from Swaziland, Grant emerged from Piccadilly Circus tube station into a crowd of patchouli-scented hippies on the steps of the Eros fountain, with traffic fumes underneath, and then drank Earl Grey in the leather armchairs of Fortnum and Mason. The fragrance sets out to bottle exactly that. The opening is bergamot and ginger over green leaves, and it is the Earl Grey half of the story, bright and peppery rather than sweet. The heart is where it earns its reputation: cypriol, the smoky earthy root also sold as nagarmotha, sits alongside mate for a dry tea-leaf bitterness and an unapologetic petrol note that reads as garage forecourt rather than anything abstract. The base is cedar, dry amber and leather, and the leather is the well-worn armchair rather than anything animalic. Two things are worth flagging. First, the brand's own storytelling puts patchouli at the centre of the concept but patchouli does not appear in the published pyramid; the cypriol is doing that job, and it smells earthier and smokier than patchouli would. Second, this is a small independent house with very little community feedback, and the little there is runs cool: the sole Parfumo statement scores it 5.5 and calls it leafy green and earth with motor oil, but ultimately flat and neither new nor beautiful, while trade reviewers at the time were far warmer. At ninety-five pounds for 100 mL it is the most expensive thing in this batch by a wide margin, and it is a fragrance to try before buying. Made in Great Britain, not tested on animals, and sleeved in a Union Jack calico drawstring bag with a luggage label.