Alan Ilagan

Orange. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Andy’s not a fan, but he’ll have to deal, as I’ve decreed orange to be the accent color for my Spring/Summer season. It starts with a Jack Spade bag and a complementary card holder, and goes down to a hot pair of argyle socks. I’m looking at orange shoes next. Yes, I have one pair already, but they’re an old Polo set from long ago. So that’s the revolutionary costume plan for the season. Orange. (And lavender.)

Now if I can only decide upon an anniversary fragrance. It’s been narrowed down to a couple of Tom Ford Private Blend scents (Champaca Absolute, Neroli Portofino, or Oud Wood), an Hermes, something by Frederic Malle, or a Creed (Silver Mountain or Imperial Millisime). Last year I wore Creed’s Green Irish Tweed for the wedding weekend, but I think I may want to save that for the super special occasions. Either way, it’s an exciting time for citrus.

It may sound sacrilegious coming from me, but the most important thing a person can wear is not an item of clothing, or even a pair of shoes – it’s your fragrance. Now that Spring is here (and Givenchy’s ‘Play’ has run its transitory course bridging the Winter/Spring seasons), I’m in need of a new scent.

So far it’s come down to these contenders:

1)      Burberry Sport (until this one, I’ve never liked any of the Burberry scents, but like all “sport” versions, it’s not the least bit flowery)

2)      Grey Vetiver by Tom Ford (the scent of vetiver veers dangerously close to an old-man’s fragrance, but every time I sample this I love the way it wears on me – still, it feels more like a Winter cologne)

3)      Gucci by Gucci (unimaginative name notwithstanding, this is another one that is less flowery than their standard floral fare)

I also need to plan the wedding weekend scent, and I’m leaning heavily toward a very special bottle of Creed’s Green Irish Tweed that Andy purchased for my birthday last year (fittingly while we were in Boston).