Cabochard by Gres c1958

Cabochard was launched in 1958. The name Cabochard was chosen by Madame Gres herself (in French Cabochard means 'stubborn' or 'headstrong') to reflect her free spirit and will. Following the current trends at the time for chypres, she launched two of her own: the leathery chypre, Cabochard and the floral chypre, Chouda.

The inspiration for her perfume was sparked by a trip to India where she discovered a flower which possessed a soft tuberose like scent, but had a fresh, green scent. Water hyacinth, rarely used in perfumes at the time, was the beautiful light floral she had spoken of.  She consulted the genius perfumer Guy Robert and described her vision of a beautiful perfume.

It took three years worth of several trials before Madame Gres could recognize her light and floral perfume. When she sniffed the final formula, she mentioned that it reminded her of the warm, sweet sandalwood, hints of flowers and the fresh sharpness of the sea breeze in the morning that she would smell when she walked the long and empty beaches in India.

Cabochard adds a subtle note of mystery. It's a gentle medley of bergamot, iris and amber, with top notes of jasmine and Bulgarian rose.

While Cabochard was a success, a couple of months after it was created, the production of Chouda was suspended. The delivered 5 liters of the perfume were most probably worn by Madame Gres herself.

Combat, 1959:

"All the great fashion designers, or almost, have their own perfume. Gres has had one, for a long time, too. Her name is 'A.' Only a few elegant ones of her clientele know her. Here she is creating two new ones that she seems, this time, to want to distribute. They deserve it. One is called 'Cabochard' which is funny, and suggests the stubbornness that a persistent perfume must have. The other is called 'Chouda' which is the Indian name of the little flower seller in 'Amal' by Rabindranath Tangore.

'Cabochard' is the type of fashionable perfume, which women love, because it dresses it with a musky aura that shades the duo of rose and jasmine with sensuality. A note of vetiver freshens up the start while a touch of chypre rounds off the development. A powerful aldehyde gives it its particular stridency. Very successful 'Cabochard' will make its way.

'Chouda' is more original. Mrs. Gres says that the end of the development coincided with her return from the fact-finding trip she made to India last winter. One morning, in her Parisian bedroom, she had the feeling, intense to the point of hallucination, of waking up with her window open on the garden of one of the sumptuous Indian mansions where she had been received. It was her new perfume, sprayed the day before, which was sneakily affecting her subconscious. It didn't have a name yet. It had one, henceforth, which symbolizes the exalted inflorescences of the lands torn from the jungle. 'Chouda' is, indeed, a flowery fragrance, but it is, to my knowledge, the most long-lasting and unalterable of its kind. A sedentary sense of smell recognizes the acute fragrance of honeysuckle with fine ivory claws, and sharp tips of mock orange, bursting with the insistent aroma of thick gardenia petals. But that's not the whole bouquet, to which a mysterious, synthetic product gives an unalterable freshness. In the hothouse of Paris, here are transported the damp depths of the singular corollas where the hummingbirds lose themselves, as in urns of pleasure. I imagine 'Chouda' in the wake of a tall blonde girl, radiant, illuminated by some intimate ardor, a tall girl in bloom. Alas, many women dread flowery perfumes. They are wrong. Let them try this one. It will bathe them in youth."

Original Fragrance Composition:

So what does Cabochard smell like? It is classified as a leathery floral chypre fragrance for women. It begins with a dry, fresh top of bergamot and lemon, followed by a floral heart of jasmine, geranium, tuberose, powdery iris and Bulgarian rose, accented with dry oriental spices and the intense greenery of galbanum, resting on a warm, mossy chypre base with a touch of ambergris, vetiver and tonkin musk. A floral scent based on classic rose and jasmine with spicy overtones.

• Top notes:  aldehydes, tarragon, water hyacinth, fruity notes, asafoetida, Italian bergamot, clary sage, Italian lemon and spice notes
• Middle notes: carnation, nutmeg, honeysuckle, clove, tuberose, orris, geranium, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, galbanum and ylang ylang
• Base notes: juniper, civet, castoreum, resins, Tonkin musk, tobacco, patchouli, vetiver, coconut, Moroccan oakmoss, sandalwood, leather, ambergris

To produce one ounce of Cabochard parfum, it requires 6,400 jasmine flowers, 340 roses, and 45 tuberose blossoms, and that's just the beginning!

Combat, 1963:

"Cabochard - Belongs to the chypres family, but its very personal character is due to original associations of floral essences, oak moss and an amber base. Its departure is fresh and flowery, thanks to the amount given by clary sage and bergamot, by jasmine and Provencal carnation. The heart of the perfume is based on essences of oak moss, sandalwood, vetiver and patchouli which affirm its sensual and attractive side."

 

Bottle:

To minimize the costs of production for her two initial perfumes, Madame Gres chose a simple bottle style. It was a plain, apothecary style bottle tied with a grey bow for Cabochard, and tied with a green bow for Chouda. The stopper is disk shaped, made of frosted glass and molded with a large G for Gres. Please note that this is not a Lalique bottle but was made Pochet et du Courval who has made all of Gres' perfume flacons since the 1950s.

The fragrance was available in the following:

• Purse Parfum Flacon
• 1/4 oz Parfum
• 1/2 oz Parfum
• 1 oz Parfum
• 2 oz Parfum
• 4 oz Parfum
• Spray Parfum
• 2 oz Eau de Toilette
• 4 oz Eau de Toilette
• 8 oz Eau de Toilette
• 16 oz Eau de Toilette
• 2 oz Atomizer (non refillable)
• 3 oz Atomizer (refillable)
• 1/2 oz Bath Oil
• 1 oz Bath Oil
• Talc
• Soap

Flankers:

Cabochard was later flanked by two special edition fragrances, Air de Cabochard, and Ambre de Cabochard.

Air de Cabochard by Gres is a chypre fragrance for women and was launched in 2000, it was created by Max Gavarry and Domitille Michalon. The fragrance features floral notes, spices, leather and oak moss.

Ambre de Cabochard by Gres is an Oriental fragrance for women, it was launched in 2006 and created by Jean-Claude Delville and Jean-Pierre Bethouart.

• Top notes are ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, mandarin orange, black currant and blueberry
• Middle notes are tuberose, lily-of-the-valley and cyclamen 
• Base notes are musk, patchouli, amber, tonka bean, vanilla and woodsy notes

Chouda:

Chouda is classified as a floral chypre fragrance for women. The name is a shortened form for the word "bakachouda/bakchodi", "बकचोदी" Hindi slang for "sex".

• Top notes: galbanum, water hyacinth, aldehyde, tuberose, honeysuckle
• Middle notes: gardenia, honey, narcissus, lily of the valley, hay, broom, cinnamon
• Base notes: amber, oakmoss, musk, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka, benzoin, labdanum

Vogue, 1964:

"Gres, director of a couture house of world- renown, which carried her name but of which she was only a salaried ..We laughed about her first perfume, the one that had to be quickly removed from sale because she christened it "Chouda,"-a word which, it seems something very very far from decent in Hindu."

Bottles:

Chouda was presented in the same bottle as Cabochard but instead of the grey velvet ribbon, it sported a green velvet ribbon tied around the neck. Since the perfume was pulled from production, there was about 5 litres left so Madame Gres kept quite a bit for herself, while the rest was decanted into mini bottles and sold along with other popular perfumes in sets of five.

These sets included not only Chouda by Gres but also Magie by Lancome, Baghari by Robert Piguet, Ariane by Jacques Heim and Grilou by Jacques Griffe. This set originally debuted in 1960 and existing stock was still sold in 1962. Besides Chouda, the Grilou by Griffe is also hard to find. These mini bottles are most likely the only bottles of Chouda you will come across.