Givenchy III was released in 1970 and owes its name to 3 avenue George V, the house's address. Jean-François Latty, Raymond Chaillan and Yolande Jerrold there signed a green chypre led by galbanum. The original formula has been discontinued: what is sold today is the reissue from the Mythiques collection.
For Auparfum, Aurélien Caillault places Givenchy III halfway between the original Miss Dior and N°19, whose edges it rounds off out of a wish to be pleasant rather than out of compromise. He judges it less striking than its two contemporaries, without judging it less interesting, and finds the current version washed out.
Olfastory’s review
In search of lost elegance
On May 26, 2015, Aurélien Caillault devoted a review to it in Auparfum, the online journal of Nez. The title already carries the verdict, and the article is worth as much for what it says about the perfume as for what it says about the house.
He sees in it an occasion to recall an era when Givenchy perfumes extended the couture house, before the serial flankers that, he writes, betray a little more of the founder's legacy each time.
Between Miss Dior and N°19
His judgment rests on a position: halfway between a green chypre and a green floral, between the original Miss Dior and N°19, its exact contemporary. Givenchy III rounds off the edges of these two sacred monsters.
Less earthy and green than the first, less intellectual than the second. Not out of compromise, he specifies, but out of a wish to be as pleasant and as elegant as possible. Which makes it less striking, without making it less interesting.
On the current version he is more reserved: the chypre base seems ethereal to him, almost washed out, less full-bodied than in the vintage, saved by a few amber and lightly smoky inflections.