Is There A Reason To Wear A Fragrance?

Is there a reason to wear a fragrance or, wording the question differently, why do people wear fragrances? People wear fragrances for many reasons. One of the most common, lately, is that one gets sprayed in Bloomingdale’s. This, however, does not a fragrance wearer make. The sprayee is simply a fragrance “carrier,” someone who has been dealt with like a Mediterranean fruit fly.

In a more serious mood, however, why do we wear fragrances?

Years ago, I was conducting some research at New York University studying the effect of a particular diet on rabbits. During one of the feeding sessions, one of the animals became uncooperative and made some threat displays to me. Because I am a sensitive fellow, I defended myself elegantly. I had, in my pocket one of the submissions of what, later on, was going to be Calandre and I simply sprayed the rabbit with it. He did not like it and staged a retreat. The reaction of his cage mates, however, is what interested me. They reacted to the incident with enormous curiosity. Most of them were fascinated by the way the sprayed animal smelled. The “smelly” rabbit became the center of attention of the cage. It was evident to me that the poor Peter Cottontail lost anonymity. He had become a temporary celebrity. In short, he was a different rabbit.

This experience made it quite clear to me that fragrances were either celebrity creators or anonymity decreasors, not a small accomplishment!

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