When Givenchy introduced Extra'vagance d'Amarige in May of 1998, the house was drawing upon one of its most beloved perfume successes: Amarige, the voluptuous floral fragrance launched in 1991. Givenchy itself was already legendary long before the perfume appeared. Founded in 1952 by the aristocratic French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, the house became famous for refining Parisian elegance into something simultaneously graceful, modern, and effortlessly luxurious. Hubert de Givenchy dressed some of the most iconic women of the twentieth century, most famously Audrey Hepburn, whose relationship with the designer helped cement the brand’s image as the embodiment of chic sophistication. Givenchy fashion represented clean lines, aristocratic glamour, and understated sensuality—qualities that naturally translated into the house’s fragrances. By the 1990s, Givenchy perfumes had become known for balancing couture elegance with emotional warmth, and Amarige in particular had developed a devoted following for its rich, radiant floral signature.
The name “Extra'vagance d'Amarige” was intentionally theatrical and romantic, blending French wordplay with the identity of the original fragrance. “Extravagance” in French and English evokes luxury, excess, fantasy, and uninhibited emotion, while “Amarige” itself was famously derived from an anagram of the French word mariage, meaning “marriage.” Amarige symbolized joyful femininity, romance, celebration, and passionate devotion. By adding “Extra'vagance,” Givenchy transformed that romantic theme into something more playful, sparkling, and free-spirited—as though the original Amarige woman had stepped out into spring sunlight with renewed confidence and spontaneity. Pronounced in layman’s terms as “ex-trah-vah-GAHNS dah-mah-REEZH,” the name sounds unmistakably French, fluid, and dramatic. Even visually, the apostrophe slicing through “Extra'vagance” gave the title a fashionable, couture-like flair typical of late-1990s luxury branding.
The words “Extra'vagance d'Amarige” evoke vivid imagery: flowing silk in bright colors, champagne bubbles rising in crystal glasses, laughter spilling from café terraces in Paris, fresh bouquets wrapped in tissue paper, and a woman moving through the city with elegance that feels effortless rather than formal. It suggests emotional abundance rather than heaviness—luxury expressed through lightness, freshness, and animation. In scent, the name implies something floral yet airy, radiant rather than dense, extravagant not through opulence alone but through movement, freshness, and luminous charm. Where the original Amarige enveloped the wearer in a rich floral embrace, Extra'vagance d'Amarige suggested petals floating in spring air, green stems snapped fresh from the garden, and sunlight catching translucent fabrics.
The fragrance arrived during a fascinating transitional period in perfumery and fashion. The late 1990s occupied the cultural space between the minimalism of the early decade and the glamorous optimism that would define the early 2000s. Fashion was shifting away from severe monochrome minimalism toward brighter colors, fluid femininity, playful luxury, and sensual transparency. Slip dresses, sheer fabrics, glowing makeup, glossy lips, and fresh-faced beauty dominated magazines and runways. Women increasingly embraced fragrances that felt cleaner, greener, and more luminous than the powerhouse perfumes of the 1980s. Aquatic florals, transparent fruits, green florals, and airy musks became central trends. Consumers wanted fragrances that still felt feminine and luxurious, but without overwhelming density.
In perfumery, this era is often associated with the rise of “transparent florals” and fresh interpretations of classic perfume structures. Advances in aroma chemicals allowed perfumers to create fragrances that felt sparkling, diffusive, and breathable while still retaining complexity. Houses began revisiting their successful classics with lighter flankers designed for daytime wear and younger consumers. Extra'vagance d'Amarige fit perfectly within this movement. Rather than competing directly with the bold white floral intensity of the original Amarige, perfumer Michel Girard softened and brightened the composition into a fresh green floral that reflected contemporary tastes without abandoning the romantic soul of the original.
Women of 1998 would likely have interpreted Extra'vagance d'Amarige as modern femininity with a couture pedigree. It appealed to women who admired the warmth and glamour of Amarige but desired something more effortless and wearable for everyday life. The name itself communicated freedom, confidence, emotional brightness, and playful sophistication. It suggested a woman who was romantic but not restrained, elegant but lively, luxurious without appearing overly formal. At a time when women increasingly balanced career ambition with personal independence, fragrances like Extra'vagance d'Amarige offered a softer, more versatile expression of femininity than the assertive power perfumes that had dominated previous decades.
Olfactively, the fragrance’s classification as a fresh green floral reflected the era beautifully. Green florals in the late 1990s often emphasized crisp stems, translucent petals, airy foliage, and watery freshness surrounding floral cores. This style created the sensation of walking through a dewy garden rather than standing inside a heavily perfumed salon. Michel Girard’s interpretation maintained the emotional exuberance associated with Amarige while filtering it through the lighter aesthetic of the late 1990s. The result was less creamy and narcotic than many earlier florals, instead offering brightness, lift, and movement. The “extravagance” was therefore interpreted not as heaviness or ornamentation, but as radiant abundance—a floral bouquet exploding outward with freshness and optimism.
Within the context of the market, Extra'vagance d'Amarige was not radically unconventional, but it was highly intelligent and timely. It aligned closely with the dominant trends of the era toward fresher florals and lighter reinterpretations of established classics. However, what distinguished it was the unmistakable Givenchy elegance underlying the composition. Many fresh florals of the late 1990s leaned heavily into aquatic or fruity transparency, sometimes sacrificing emotional richness for cleanliness. Extra'vagance d'Amarige retained a distinctly romantic French floral character beneath its modern freshness, allowing it to feel more sophisticated and couture-oriented than many trend-driven contemporaries. It successfully bridged two worlds: the lush romanticism of early-1990s florals and the breezy luminosity that consumers increasingly desired at the turn of the millennium.
Launch:
The launch campaign for Extra'vagance d'Amarige perfectly captured the theatrical glamour and sensual sophistication that Givenchy was cultivating at the end of the 1990s. The face of the fragrance was supermodel Eva Herzigová, one of the defining beauty icons of the era. Herzigová embodied the late-1990s ideal of femininity: statuesque, luminous, sensual, yet coolly self-possessed. Unlike the overtly aggressive glamour of many 1980s fragrance campaigns, her presence in the advertisement conveyed a more modern form of seduction—confident, playful, and effortlessly luxurious. She appeared draped in a dramatically cut décolleté gown designed by Alexander McQueen, whose appointment as Givenchy’s chief designer in 1996 had electrified the fashion world. McQueen’s arrival at Givenchy marked a radical shift for the historic couture house, introducing darker romanticism, daring sensuality, and avant-garde theatricality into a brand long associated with refined aristocratic elegance.
The choice of a McQueen gown for the advertisement was deeply symbolic. McQueen’s designs were famous for their sculptural tailoring, emotional intensity, and provocative beauty, and the plunging décolleté silhouette used in the campaign emphasized the tension between classic French sophistication and contemporary sensuality. It reflected the broader fashion atmosphere of the late 1990s, when couture was becoming more dramatic, body-conscious, and emotionally expressive. Satin fabrics, exposed shoulders, luminous skin, and sharply feminine silhouettes dominated luxury advertising. In the campaign imagery, Eva Herzigová appeared less like a traditional society beauty and more like a modern goddess—radiant, untouchable, and slightly dangerous. This aligned perfectly with the fragrance itself: a lighter, greener interpretation of Amarige, yet still imbued with sensuality and romantic excess.
One of the most memorable and unusual aspects of the launch was Givenchy’s promotional tattoo transfer, which was distributed free with every bottle purchased. The temporary tattoo replicated one worn by Eva Herzigová in the campaign and was impregnated with the fragrance’s eau de toilette. This marketing idea was exceptionally modern for its time and revealed how luxury perfume advertising in the late 1990s was evolving beyond simple print imagery into immersive lifestyle branding. Temporary tattoos were heavily associated with youth culture, club fashion, pop music, and playful rebellion during that period. By incorporating a scented tattoo into the launch, Givenchy cleverly fused couture glamour with contemporary streetwise sensuality. It made the fragrance feel interactive, intimate, and slightly provocative.
The tattoo itself also carried layered symbolism. Traditionally, perfume was considered invisible adornment—something worn privately upon the skin. A tattoo, by contrast, suggested a visible mark of identity, passion, and individuality. Combining the two transformed the fragrance into a sensual “second skin,” reinforcing the idea that Extra'vagance d'Amarige was not merely a scent, but an emotional statement. Women purchasing the fragrance were invited to participate in the fantasy of the campaign itself, briefly adopting the aura of Eva Herzigová and the seductive mystique associated with McQueen’s Givenchy. The concept perfectly reflected the era’s fascination with body consciousness, personal expression, and fashion as performance.
The campaign also demonstrated how perfume launches were becoming increasingly cinematic and celebrity-driven during the late 1990s. Supermodels like Eva Herzigová were not simply models; they were international symbols of glamour whose personalities and public images became inseparable from the fragrances they represented. Her cool sensuality, combined with McQueen’s provocative couture, gave Extra'vagance d'Amarige a distinctly contemporary edge that separated it from softer, more conservative floral launches of the period. Even though the fragrance itself was fresh and green, the advertising wrapped it in an atmosphere of decadent femininity, modern luxury, and flirtatious extravagance—exactly the emotional world suggested by its name.
Fragrance Composition:
So what does it smell like? Extra'vagance d'Amarige is classified as a fresh green floral fragrance for women.
- Top notes: green mandarin, tagetes, rose, pink peppercorn and nettle
- Middle notes: jasmine, orange blossom, wisteria, wild strawberry, violet and violet leaves
- Base notes: sandalwood, cedar, ambrox, musk, black iris
Scent Profile:
Created by perfumer Michel Girard, Extra'vagance d'Amarige unfolds like a garden caught between couture glamour and spring sunlight. Unlike the opulent golden richness of the original Amarige, this composition feels brighter, greener, and more translucent, as though a lush floral bouquet had been carried outdoors into cool morning air. The fragrance opens with a vivid flash of green mandarin, whose sparkling citrus brightness immediately establishes the perfume’s youthful vitality. Green mandarin, often sourced from Mediterranean groves in Italy or Sicily, differs from fully ripened mandarin by retaining a tart, leafy freshness with subtle bitter nuances. Sicilian varieties are particularly prized for their high concentration of aromatic oils produced under the island’s intense sunlight and mineral-rich soil, giving the fruit a more vibrant, almost effervescent aroma. In perfume, green mandarin smells less sugary than orange or tangerine; instead, it suggests freshly torn citrus peel, green twigs, and cool juice splashing from an unripe fruit freshly cut open.
Intertwined with the citrus is tagetes, also known as marigold, one of perfumery’s most unusual floral notes. Tagetes absolute, often cultivated in Egypt or South Africa, possesses an aroma that is both radiant and strangely wild: bitter green leaves crushed between the fingers, golden petals warmed by sunlight, and a pungent herbal sharpness with fruity undertones reminiscent of green apple and passionfruit. Egyptian tagetes is especially valued because the hot, dry climate intensifies the oil’s fruity-green complexity. In perfumery, tagetes lends a bold green luminosity that prevents florals from becoming overly soft or powdery. Here it gives Extra'vagance d'Amarige a fashionable edge, almost like the crisp green snap of a couture bouquet wrapped in glossy cellophane.
The rose note glides into the opening not as a heavy velvet bloom, but as a fresh-cut pink rose still damp with dew. Rose in modern perfumery is often built from both natural essences and sophisticated aroma chemicals because natural rose oil alone cannot provide the full spectrum of airy freshness desired in contemporary compositions. Turkish and Bulgarian roses are among the most treasured due to their uniquely balanced honeyed, lemony, and spicy facets created by the cool nights and fertile valleys where they grow. In fragrances like this, perfumers frequently enhance natural rose with molecules such as phenyl ethyl alcohol for watery freshness or damascones for fruity-petal depth. These synthetics allow the rose to feel transparent and luminous rather than dense and old-fashioned.
Floating around the rose is pink peppercorn, a fashionable late-1990s ingredient that brought sparkle and movement to many contemporary florals. Pink pepper does not smell like black pepper; instead, it possesses a rosy, fizzy brightness with cool spice and subtle berry nuances. Often harvested from trees grown in South America or Réunion Island, it contributes a champagne-like effervescence that makes the fragrance shimmer on the skin.
Perhaps the most unconventional note in the opening is nettle, which lends the perfume its striking green character. True nettle does not produce a commercially viable essential oil for perfumery, so its aroma is recreated through green aroma chemicals and herbal accords. The effect is vividly realistic: crushed stems, damp leaves, cool earth, and the slightly metallic scent released when wild greenery is bruised by rain. This note gives Extra'vagance d'Amarige its modern freshness and separates it from sweeter mainstream florals of the era. The nettle accord adds texture and movement, creating the sensation of walking through a lush overgrown garden where flowers and greenery coexist naturally rather than being arranged formally.
As the fragrance blooms into its heart, jasmine unfurls in soft white waves. Jasmine used in luxury perfumery is often sourced from Grasse in France or from India, particularly jasmine sambac, each possessing distinct personalities. Grasse jasmine tends to smell airy, creamy, and delicately fruity, while Indian sambac is richer, more narcotic, and tea-like. Because jasmine flowers are too delicate for steam distillation, their fragrance must be extracted through solvent methods to create an absolute, making genuine jasmine one of perfumery’s most expensive ingredients. Modern perfumers also rely heavily on aroma chemicals such as Hedione, a revolutionary jasmine molecule famous for its radiant transparency and diffusive glow. Hedione does not smell exactly like jasmine itself; rather, it creates the sensation of luminous air surrounding flowers, adding freshness, expansion, and sensuality. In Extra'vagance d'Amarige, the jasmine feels airy and floating, illuminated from within rather than creamy or indolic.
Orange blossom adds a sunlit sweetness to the floral heart. Mediterranean orange blossom, especially from Tunisia or Morocco, is prized for its balance of honeyed richness and sparkling citrus freshness. The scent is simultaneously floral, green, powdery, and faintly animalic, carrying the warmth of white petals heated under southern sunlight. Orange blossom also connects beautifully with the green mandarin in the opening, creating continuity throughout the fragrance. Beside it drifts wisteria, a note rarely extracted naturally because the flowers do not yield usable essential oil. Perfumers recreate wisteria through delicate lilac-like florals, watery green notes, and soft powdery molecules. The effect is airy, cascading, and romantic, evoking violet-tinted blossoms hanging from garden trellises in springtime.
The fruity softness of wild strawberry gives the composition a flirtatious sweetness, though true strawberry cannot be distilled into perfume naturally. Instead, strawberry effects are created using fruity esters and molecules such as ethyl methylphenylglycidate, which imparts juicy berry nuances. Unlike the syrupy strawberry notes found in gourmand fragrances, this wild strawberry accord feels sheer and delicate, like the scent left on fingertips after crushing tiny woodland berries.
Violet and violet leaves add another dimension entirely. Violet flowers themselves produce almost no extractable oil, so their powdery floral scent is recreated synthetically with ionones—molecules that smell cool, velvety, cosmetic, and faintly candied. Ionones were revolutionary in perfumery because they gave fragrances their characteristic violet softness while also blending seamlessly into woods and florals. Violet leaf, however, can produce an absolute, though it is used sparingly due to expense. Its aroma is intensely green and watery, smelling of snapped stems, cucumber peel, damp earth, and crushed leaves. Together, violet flower and violet leaf create a beautiful contrast between powdery femininity and cool botanical freshness.
The base settles into a sensual veil of woods and modern musks that reflect the clean sophistication popular in the late 1990s. Sandalwood forms the creamy heart of the drydown. Traditionally, the most prized sandalwood came from Mysore, India, where decades of slow maturation produced wood with extraordinary buttery smoothness, milky warmth, and soft spicy richness. Because genuine Mysore sandalwood became increasingly restricted and rare by the late twentieth century, perfumers frequently relied on Australian sandalwood or synthetic sandalwood molecules to recreate its creamy effect. These synthetics often enhance the natural material by extending its longevity and emphasizing its velvety texture. Cedarwood introduces a drier contrast, likely inspired by Virginian or Atlas cedar. Virginian cedar smells pencil-like, crisp, and slightly smoky, while Atlas cedar from Morocco is warmer and more resinous. Cedar adds elegant structure beneath the florals, preventing the fragrance from drifting into excessive sweetness.
One of the most distinctly modern materials in the base is ambrox, a synthetic ambergris note. Historically, true ambergris was an extraordinarily rare substance produced within sperm whales and aged by the ocean, valued for its hauntingly salty, warm, skin-like aroma. Because natural ambergris became ethically and legally restricted, perfumers developed sophisticated replacements such as Ambroxan and related molecules. Ambrox smells warm, mineral-like, musky, slightly woody, and softly radiant, almost like sun-warmed skin after sea air. It does not dominate the fragrance but instead creates a glowing aura around the wearer, amplifying diffusion and sensuality. Musks further soften the composition, likely composed of modern clean white musks rather than the animalic musks of earlier eras. These musks smell airy, cotton-soft, and skin-like, giving the perfume its polished late-1990s transparency.
Finally, black iris deepens the base with elegant mystery. Iris in perfumery comes not from flower petals but from the aged rhizomes of the iris plant, particularly Florentine iris from Italy, which must be dried and matured for several years before extraction. True iris butter possesses an extraordinarily luxurious aroma: powdery, cool, buttery, earthy, and faintly woody, with a silvery cosmetic softness unlike any other floral material. “Black iris” in fragrance terminology often suggests a darker, more velvety interpretation enhanced with woody and earthy nuances. In Extra'vagance d'Amarige, it adds sophistication beneath the brightness, anchoring the airy florals with a subtle shadow of couture elegance. The effect is graceful rather than heavy—a whisper of dark velvet beneath layers of translucent silk and green petals.
Bottles:
Presented in bottle designed by Serge Mansau
Fate of the Fragrance:
Discontinued, date unknown. Still sold in 2003.
- Top notes: marigold, mandarin
- Middle notes: jasmine, orange blossom
- Base notes: amber, woody notes
