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Giorgio Beverly Hills

Giorgio

Launched in November 1981, Giorgio is the first fragrance from Giorgio Beverly Hills, the boutique that opened on Rodeo Drive in 1961. Fred and Gale Hayman made it an opulent white floral: orange blossom and bergamot up top, tuberose, jasmine, ylang-ylang and gardenia, and a base of moss, patchouli, sandalwood, cedar and vanilla. Its box picks up the yellow and white stripes of the boutique’s awnings.

Brand
Giorgio Beverly Hills
Launch year
1981
Perfumer
Gender
Women
Olfactory family
Floral
Concentration
Eau de Toilette
EAN
0716393088357 (30 ml) · 0716393009604 (50 ml) · 0716393009581 (90 ml)

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Giorgio

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Giorgio Beverly Hills was first a boutique, opened in 1961 at 273 Rodeo Drive by Fred Hayman and George Grant, whose first name, Italianized, gave the store its name. Its yellow and white striped awnings became an emblem of Beverly Hills luxury.

Two years of trials

The idea of a house fragrance was born in 1979. According to WWD, Gale Hayman smelled samples for two years, until the evening a trial bottle from Florasynth broke as she was taking it home: the scent it released settled the matter.

Giorgio came out in November 1981, at first reserved for the boutique, before reaching Bloomingdale’s. According to WWD, its wholesale sales reached $100 million by 1985, four years after the launch.

Disputed authorship

Jean-Pierre Subrenat, a perfumer trained in Grasse who arrived in New York in 1976, states in an interview with EuropUsa that he created Giorgio Beverly Hills. The critic Richard Goller regards it as a creation of Bob Aliano; WWD names only Florasynth.

From the Haymans to Elizabeth Arden

In 1987, Fred Hayman sold the fragrance and the brand to Avon for $165 million, and the boutique became Fred Hayman Beverly Hills. Procter & Gamble bought the Giorgio brand in 1994.

The license now belongs to Elizabeth Arden, whose subsidiary EA Fragrances is behind the brand’s website. There, the house presents Giorgio as the essence of Beverly Hills in a bottle, a floral, warm and feminine fragrance.

Olfactory pyramid

  1. Top notesThe first minutes
  2. Heart notesThe heart of the perfume
  3. Base notesWhat lingers

What critics say

Richard Goller finds it outsized and proud of it, even in its current formula; Miguel Matos smells a sunny white floral rather than a bomb, and Luca Turin sees in it the embodiment of great classical perfumery.

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What the community says

LongevityAll day
Fleeting1 voteAll day
SillageGenerous
Intimate1 voteOverpowering

Occasion

Day50 %
1 vote
Work50 %
1 vote

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Longevity
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The advertising

A giant party and scent strips

In 1981, the Haymans launched Giorgio with a giant party on Rodeo Drive, before slipping scent strips into magazines.

For the launch in 1981, Fred and Gale Hayman threw a party on Rodeo Drive costing more than $250,000, under a tent a full block long, with more than thirty-five kilograms of beluga caviar. According to A Rabbit’s Foot, guests left with a bottle taken from the trunk of a Rolls-Royce.

The fragrance was at first reserved for the boutique’s customers. To make it known beyond them, the Haymans bet on the scent strip slipped into magazines: The Hollywood Reporter credits them with its first use, and WWD sees it as one of their most copied ideas.

The power of its trail did the rest. According to the Los Angeles Times in 1986, as relayed by Mental Floss, New York restaurateur Richard Lavin banned Giorgio from his 39th Street establishment and received letters of support from across the country.

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Similar notes and family, from other houses.