The Scent of Power

Parody news site The Onion has a brief news article called Hillary Clinton Launches Intimidating New Fragrance Line, said fragrance being a perfume called Authorité, "described by its manufacturer as 'steely, bracing, and curt, with notes of patent leather, sandalwood, and wool serge'."

A fragrance dominated by patent leather, sandalwood, and wool serge might actually be kind of nice. There are lots of leather scents out there, and even a patent-leather scent, Skai by Comme des Garçons. The smell of wool isn't something we associate with commercial perfumery, but wool has a lovely clean-earth smell allied with a greasy hint of civet that could find a place in a perfume. (I never get a shipment of wool yarn without sticking my nose into the box to take a big whiff, and I know I'm not the only one who does this.)

It's pointless to speculate what Hillary Clinton actually wears, but I'm going to do it anyway. I rather doubt she wears "a scent that brooks no argument", as the article suggests: she strikes me as a Diorissimo kind of woman, because a woman in politics is generally perceived as being loud, overbearing, and frankly masculine, so she might reasonably wear something fresh and pretty to disarm (or at least confuse) the men she comes into contact with. All those years in hot, humid Arkansas and Washington might well have gotten her into the habit of wearing lighter scents.

Or hell, maybe she wears one of those gorgeous, colossal 1980s power chypres like Ungaro Diva or Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum. How would I know?