Occur!
Avon (1962)

It is my humble opinion that Occur! should be regarded as one of the great classics of perfumery.

Let me tell you why: it PREVAILS. It really does OCCUR, and in an expansive, hold-your-horse-because-I'm-gonna-get-ya kind of way. It is this baffling mosaic of a perfume, not merely dawdling in a coquettish manner but giving every concentrated, punchy, delirium-inducing theme that was offered in the mid-century. Bright and sharp aldehydes, bitter and sweet colliding, spicy carnations and a heap of other flowers skipping the light fandango, all in an amber chamber, pouring out into a musky, leathery chypre base. In marches the moss, the powder, the rustling ruffles of foreplay. I would be remiss not to mention the lustful slick of castoreum and the purr of civet—cue that iconic riff from Mickey and Sylvia's "Love is Strange."

This is Avon, that of which is often mocked and jested as "cheap" and "every day Middle American"—what folks may perhaps call "normie" these days. There were many a lower-middle class and working class American who smelled divine thanks to Avon, though. Rich and dynamic, Occur! is perfume with a capital P, among the ranks of My Sin, Shocking, Habanita, Bandit—yet it remains in the shadows of these classics as it bears that unwarranted stigma. And to the gents, especially those who enjoy wet shaving, might I suggest Occur! as a smashing finish for your routine before you head out to face the day. As with so many delights of the early-to-mid-20th century that are in no way perceived as inherently gendered. Go forth and occur!

Avon's glory days were certainly from the late 1940's through to the early 1980's, where they erected a direct-selling empire oft-emulated by other upstarts which more or less became pyramid schemes after a time. Avon had moved away from traditional soliflores and prim bouquets by the postwar period, fully embracing chypres and orientals for women, many being quite racy in nature. Occur! (1962) was certainly one of the raciest, with Avon Unforgettable (1965) following in its footsteps rather closely. Occur! was an amalgam of styles: part leather chypre, part floriental, part aldehydic floral, sitting somewhere between Houbigant Chantilly (1941), and Robert Piguet Bandit (1944), with a few drops of Lanvin Arpege (1927) and Dana Tabu (1932) to broaden things out. This might sound like a granny boudoir nightmare to the modern mainstream feminine nose, but the accord created by this combination is fairly unisex and unintentionally niche in the modern era where clean citrus and synthetic fruits are the norm. If you pay attention at all to the artisinal scene, the kind of ingredients being played with in Occur! are all over the creations of one-perfumer upstart houses. Occur! won't blow anyone away, but we'll likely never see Avon get this lewd again, regardless of feminine, unisex, or masculine marketing. What's most funny is Occur! feels like a precursor to many of Avon's own masculine creations in later years, as several of its dry down phases distinctly recall future men's compositions, particularly Wild Country (1967) and Black Suede (1980).

Occur! shows its aldehydic floral and oriental facets early before drying down into a tigress of a leather chypre, being a slight bait-and-switch like so many really dynamic older perfumes. The scent opens with bergamot and aldehydes, but suspiciously no florals, coupling spicy coriander and cardamom to the top. This opening hit reminds me a lot of Lagerfeld Cologne (1978) and Coty Stetson (1981), both of which were masculine scents years away, if that gives any indication of how butch of a perfume Occur! happens to be. A mixture of yellow and white florals so well blended I can't tell them apart await in the heart, but carnation and rose stand out the most, reminding me of Wild Country in some ways, which is another masculine a few years away from happening. Beyond this opening the earliest part of the heart, Occur! becomes its own animal, leaving most comparisons behind, as patchouli, incense, vetiver smoke, and an odd cococnut sweetness dry down and dirty up the scent for the final act. Styrax, castoreum, honeyed civet, and musk all await to delight or frighten the nose, and it doesn't stop there. Leather, oakmoss, and Avon's patent amber (recalling Black Suede's finish) are among the calmer of the base notes here, with a dollop of vanilla to pretend this is civil. The saving grace of Occur! is it isn't a whopper in performance, being the rare Avon women's cologne spray that actually is, and giving moderate projection at best with 6 hours of wear time before it becomes a skin scent.

You're going to stand out wherever you wear this so forget context, but I do suggest colder weather due to animalic stew living in the base. There's a powdery quality late in the wear which combines with the leather to make Occur! feel quite like a proper Victorian barbershop cologne, which is amusing considering it was lobbed at ladies, but I also have to remind myself that women's perfume was actually more muscular than the early "dapper gent" stuff houses were filtering onto the then-untested men's market, so it makes sense that feminines were less conservative, because less risk was involved in such an established segment. Daring, mature, and take-charge types will love Occur! for it's bodybuilder physique in a miniskirt presentation, but folks looking to be polite are best to avoid Occur! at all costs. Simply put, this was Avon's most-definitive take on the mid-century "liberated women" theme in perfume, and although it still doesn't have the huevos of something like Estée Lauder Youth Dew (1953), it at least has the prowess to be a member of the pack. As an aside, if you decide to seek a newer re-issue bottle (they ran up until 1997), avoid 90's production as it severely tones down the animalics, letting the leather, oakmoss, and vanilla do more of the talking. Of course, that might be what you want, and likely a safer bet anyway if old pressurized sprays sound scary and cologne splashes are ill-suiting. This is another shockingly provocative oldie from the annals of Avon history! Thumbs up! One things certain: if you wear it, something will Occur!

Avon's answer to Lauder's Youth Dew and Houbigant's Chantilly, with its emphasis on the amber/vanilla oriental combo.

This is a very good oriental chypre, so good that I'm surprised it comes from Avon, whose scents I usually do not like. Avon products have always smelled cheap and synthetic to me, but I must admit that this is quite nice indeed.

In addition to the notes listed above, it contains Rose, Gardenia, Styrax and Coconut.

As Barbara Herman states, this is "spicy, exotic and outré."

Buy vintage only online. It's inexpensive and of fine quality.

I wore this today. Applied three sprays and on the drydown hours later, bears more than a passing resemblance to vintage Miss Dior.

I just received a tiny half-full sample bottle of Occur, probably something an Avon lady used as a demonstrator in the early 1970s. What a great, gutsy fragrance! I adore all chypres, and I'm going to find some more of this as soon as I can. Occur strikes me as a perfect, classic vintage chypre: woody, smoky, resinous, sharp, animalic, not too floral. Just beautiful.

Too bad it's been discontinued, but ... it would have had to be reformulated anyway.

I'm giving this a thumbs up because my Mum was an Avon Lady back in the mid-1960's and this was 'her' Avon perfume. I remember that time fondly as I loved trying all the sample products she had in her blue zipped Avon Lady case and we'd all choose presents from the catalogue. One Christmas I got the Pretty Peach soap (peach-shaped of course) and talc which had a peach-shaped top. Avon were brilliant at packaging in those days.