Classique Gift Set

The bottle gave this house its face, and the Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Gift Set holds the fragrance that came in it: the corset shaped flacon that has stood for the brand on shop counters ever since.

The set runs to the 100ml Eau de Toilette, a 75ml body lotion and a 10ml spray. Inside is a composition of three materials that has not needed changing. Ginger is the opening, hot and dry with a sharp snap to it, and it prevents the scent from going soft too early. Orange blossom takes over as the centre, used in its clean register, powdery and faintly soapy, which is what gives the fragrance its scrubbed, well kept quality. Vanilla underneath is the smoothing agent, creamy without being sugary, and it lets the blossom settle rather than evaporate. Nothing is hidden in it and nothing fights, which is why it has been so easy for so many people to wear.

The perfumer was Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, and the fragrance went on sale in 1993. Longevity is good and projection is sensible, so it can be worn in close company without apology. It is a feminine scent with a broad appeal across ages, which is precisely why it keeps getting bought as a present rather than only for oneself, and why it turns up on dressing tables belonging to women who own no other perfume at all. That is the case for the set: a fragrance that very few people actively dislike, presented ready to give, for the occasions when you need something certain rather than something clever, and certainty is badly underrated in a present.

Gaultier presented his first womenswear collection in 1976 and opened in Paris in 1984 before adding perfume to the business in 1993. Puig took majority ownership in 2011 and has manufactured the fragrances in house since 2016.