It’s hard to imagine today Alliage as a sport fragrance. For starters, are there even sport fragrances marketed to women today? And what is marketed for men is a synth wood/watery/metallic mess. That or a sweet, Axe/body spray dud. Well, back in the good ol 70’s, Lauder envisioned Alliage. A sport fragrance for the dynamic woman that loved the outdoors, exercised, and even in a sweaty environment, acknowledged the need to smell good. On a man? Simply dashing! Alliage works wonders for me. At first I thought that my bottle might have been changed by the passing of time (I have a 70’s bottle of Eau d’Alliage) but with subsequent wears, I realize that this is the smell of it and what Lauder envisioned. Alliage smelled today, is far more butch and masculine smelling than 99,99% of men oriented releases. It’s green, piney and leathery. It’s full of the herbal bitterness of wildlife, forests, countryside and even the coast. Pine, conifers and resins atop flashes of lemon and bergamot. Galbanum is BIG here. It’s the main star, with heavy and hefty doses of moss, musk and lavender. It is utterly refreshing and revitalizing, and I can’t help but wonder that Jean Martel drew inspiration for his seminal Paco Rabanne Pour Homme a year later. Alliage isn’t floral. It feels more like a cousin to Bandit and Cabochard in a more thumping American way. I can totally see a woman wearing it to a tennis match, a polo match or horseriding. There’s leather lurking underneath, with some heavy nitromusks, a very pronounced vetiver, and a gentle shaving cream accord that many I’m sure, appreciated well outside the sporting field. It’s dynamic, vivid, calming and luxurious all at once. The simple angular bottle with its ribbed silver cap fits it perfectly. Even as an edt, it boasts, like all Lauders, impressive tenacity and sillage. It definitely holds to a full day of activity, with a freshly bottled freshness I’ve come to discover hidden under its deep green and brown facade! Today, it works as a perfect masculine fragrance as well. It always did, but fragrance gender is more blurred today than it was 4 decades ago; today, the genderless quality of perfume is more celebrated. The sad thing is that 99,99% of younger (and not so) people today, would probably frown their nose at it and dismiss it as an ‘old lady’ and ‘old man’ smell. Bad for them, better for anyone of us who can appreciate it. 9.5/10!