Polo

EDT · 1978

Perfumer · Carlos Benaïm

Polo is an aromatic woody built on a pine accord, which the house puts up front as its signature alongside leather and tobacco. Thyme and basil sit beside the conifer in the opening, a herbal trio often associated with the fragrance's "green" reputation — a word that refers as much to the bottle and the polo field as to the smell itself. The heart moves to a leather accord and tobacco leaf absolute, tempered by tarragon, over a base of patchouli, oakmoss and incense that gives the whole thing a dark, earthy floor. Ralph Lauren files it as woody spicy, though what really holds the composition together is the friction between resinous pine and bitter moss. Released in 1978, it remains one of the defining American masculines of its decade.