We test out Guerlain’s Vetiver perfume

Robert Redford’s look as bookworm-turned-spy in the 1975 thriller Three Days of the Condor launched an entire genre of masculine style that still works today.

Bemused by the interest in Redford’s now-iconic wardrobe (which can be summed up as ‘dishevelled preppy in a peacoat’), director Sydney Pollack protested: ‘He wore one outfit through the whole picture!’ One outfit… but the right outfit. And when it comes to perfume, Vetiver by Guerlain is your one outfit.

Jean-Paul Guerlain created Vetiver for the family firm in 1959, devising an aromatic meditation on every nuance of this tough, tropical grass. Distilled from the roots of the vetiver plant, the material is earthy-fresh, smoky-woodsy, adding a classy rasp wherever it shows up. In Vetiver, the rasp is heightened by dissonant smell twins: a fizz of lemon against the kick of clovey carnation; a growl of tobacco and leather furred by the purr of tonka bean’s vanilla undertones. Vetiver is the intelligent choice for both men and women that telegraphs confidence and wit — a deathless classic that always smells modern.

From £55 for 50ml (guerlain.com)