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.
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.
Olfastory’s review
Richard Goller, Fragroom
In March 2021, Richard Goller marked Giorgio’s fortieth anniversary. From the first spray, sweet orange blossom and peach, he finds it outsized, even in its current formula, and sees in it a brash, very 1980s side that, in his view, is part of its charm.
He singles out flamboyant white flowers, led by tuberose, gardenia and jasmine, an optimistic, uplifting effect, and a generous base in which he picks out oakmoss, sandalwood and vanilla.
Miguel Matos, Fragrantica
Miguel Matos discovered Giorgio in November 2020, in its current formula, made in Spain. He does not smell the legendary bomb but an opulent white floral, very sunny and luminous, in which tuberose and gardenia show all their facets.
He hears a touch of galbanum, a velvety peach and a chypre framework, and credits it with wide influence: he likens it to Revlon’s Charlie Red and sees it as the likely source of Amarige, in 1991.
Luca Turin, Perfumes: The A-Z Guide
In Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, published in 2008 and quoted by Miguel Matos, Luca Turin sees in Giorgio the embodiment of what makes classical perfumery, half natural and half synthetic, great.