A revival of Pucci’s 1966 Vivara is the understated winner this month, but put on your shades, or you’ll be blinded by the light of Emporio Armani’s Diamonds. Here’s the best in Italian elegance for fall …
Pucci Vivara
Full-bodied, mod, and elegant, Vivara carries its wearer away to Italy’s finest experience: the art of style. Live it up in shoes and handbags with finely tailored seams and hand-tooled findings that cost a fortune, yet last a lifetime; the hippest haircut and the guts to wear it when it takes an hour to execute each morning; a new jacket for every season. Vivara is high heels worn confidently over cobblestone streets, a scarf whipping over the lipsticked mouth of a woman on a speeding moped. The cap on this bottle was inspired by Pucci’s Vivara print fabric, which you’ll notice from clothing and accessories (and a million spin-offs). The new Vivara fragrance, with top notes of galbanum, bergamot, and amaretto, followed by jasmine, orange blossom, and narcissus, and finished with a flourish of iris, vetiver, and patchouli, is the ultimate in Italian panache: definitive, dynamic, and daring.
Eau de parfum, $85 for 50ml and $110 for 80ml, at fine department stores and online.
Emporio Armani Diamonds
Cool and insulated, like a white mod chair of molded plastic, Diamonds is a refuge from a rough reality—a girl’s best friend, indeed! Under the sparkling spell of Diamonds, your feet sink into the plush carpet of a fine boutique, there’s no limit on your credit card, and every shoe fits like a glove. The twinkle comes from its packaging—a faceted bottle and a box with faux gems—and from its luscious, feminine composition of litchi, raspberry, rose, freesia, lily of the valley, vetiver, cedar wood, patchouli, and finally amber. Diamonds is a Hotel California done Italian-style: tempting and seductive, whispering behind your neck, “Stay awhile.” So you do.
Eau de parfum, $39.50–$69.50, at fine department stores and online.
