What Does Fendi Fendi Smell Like?
Fendi Fendi (1987) belongs to the last great wave of big floral chypres, and it wears its decade proudly. The opening is a sharp, soapy burst of aldehydes over bergamot, lemon, and mandarin, warmed within minutes by coriander and cardamom. Rosewood adds a dry, woody edge that keeps the citrus from feeling cheerful. If you have never smelled a proper aldehyde perfume, expect a fizzy, slightly waxy brightness rather than fruit.
After the first hour the heart takes over completely. Carnation leads a dense bouquet of rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and lily of the valley, while geranium and cypress keep everything dry and structured. Community reviewers regularly place it next to Chanel Coco, Ungaro Diva, and even Youth Dew in character: spicy, floral, faintly sweet, never light.
The drydown is where it earns its cult status. Leather and oakmoss anchor a dark base of patchouli, cedar, and sandalwood, rounded off by amber, tonka bean, and vanilla. One detailed Parfumo review pictures a room filled with leather and furs, roses in every state from budding to faded, and lit cigarettes in ashtrays. That image holds up. On skin it shifts from polished to animalic as the hours pass, leaving an amber and leather warmth that survives into the next morning on fabric.
Performance
This is where vintage Fendi embarrasses most modern releases. Community consensus puts longevity at 8 to 12 hours, and the Eau de Toilette still projects firmly for the first two to three hours before settling into a strong skin scent. Parfumo raters score it around 9 for both longevity and sillage, which is remarkable for anything sold as an EDT. Apply conservatively: three sprays is plenty for an evening. Since every bottle on the market is old stock, condition varies, and juice that has been stored badly loses its sparkling aldehydic top notes first.
Best Clone Or Alternative
With the line discontinued, Perfume Parlour High End For Women 0210 is the only realistic way to wear this scent family without paying collector prices. At £22.00 for a 50ml EDP spray, it costs a fraction of the $135 to $599 range seen across resale listings for surviving vintage bottles. Its published pyramid mirrors Fendi’s almost note for note, from the aldehyde and coriander top through the carnation and jasmine heart to the leather and oakmoss base.
Feedback from buyers is honest but split. People who wore the original often say it brings the scent back exactly, and several call it the only passable match they have found. Others report a soapy, powdery finish the original never had and a lighter leather note, particularly after Perfume Parlour revised the formula in December 2021. A similarity score around 78 feels fair: the structure and main accords are present, but the vintage depth and animalic edge are dialed down. Start with the 13ml or 30ml if you are chasing a specific memory.
When To Wear It
Fall and winter suit it best, with cool spring evenings workable if you cut back to one or two sprays. This is evening fragrance: formal events, dinners, the theater, and dates where you want presence rather than freshness. It is too heavy for hot weather and too assertive for a quiet office. Worn correctly it fills a room politely and keeps talking after you leave.
Who Should Buy It
Anyone who owned and loved the original and cannot justify collector pricing should buy it without hesitation. It also suits fans of vintage chypres such as Chanel Coco, Ungaro Diva, or Aromatics Elixir who want that dense, spicy floral style in modern rotation. Collectors curious about late-eighties perfumery get a low-risk way to study the composition before gambling several hundred dollars on a bottle of unknown provenance.
Who Should Skip It
If your collection lives in clean, sweet, or fruity modern territory, this will read as old-fashioned and heavy. Anyone who needs an office-safe or gym-friendly scent should look elsewhere. If powdery florals or soapy aldehydes bother you, both the original and the clone will grate, since they share the same DNA. People sensitive to anything remotely animalic should pass as well.
Final Verdict
Fendi Fendi (1987) is a genuine classic: an opulent spicy floral chypre with real leather, real oakmoss, and performance that puts most current releases to shame. Its flaws are practical rather than olfactory. Production ended years ago, resale prices swing wildly, and bottle condition is luck of the draw. Perfume Parlour High End For Women 0210 makes the style accessible again for £22.00, trading some vintage depth and leather bite for availability. Try the clone first. If the style hooks you, hunt down a well-stored bottle of the original and enjoy one of the great eighties compositions at full strength.