When Rugby Inspires a Perfume
- Patoo
- Nov 25, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2025
The following short story, The smell of victory, is the inspiration behind Jour de Gloire No9. The tale briefly portrays the sensory world of Rugby and hints at the origins of the fragrant notes and essences that shape the perfume.
The Smell of Victory
Shanghai, a Sunday afternoon in the late 1930s...
Sipping my Pink Gin I breathe in the earthy autumn scents drifting up to the terrace of the clubhouse. The sea breeze caresses the green grass of the sports fields before vanishing through the cypress trees. The Shanghai Rugby Football Club is a joyful place where the local elite comes to socialize and escape the press of city life.
The terrace is now crowded as the sun sinks into the golden west. Noise and the fervour of victory saturate the atmosphere! As captain of our rugby team, I raise a toast to our new title as Champions of the Autumn Tournament. Tonight, our team is the pride of the club! We all look so proud smoking cigars in our black evening suits!
I negotiate my way through the jubilant crowd toward the lounge bar. The orchestra is playing In the Mood, electrifying the ambience with its syncopated swing. A young woman is seated on a red velvet sofa, wearing a shimmering gown threaded with metallic highlights. She smokes gracefully through a long cigarette holder, lost in thought. She is truly beautiful, almost untouchably so.
“ Do you mind if I sit beside you? ”
“ Please do! You must be exhausted after such a hard-fought game! ”
The orchestra drifts into Moonlight Serenade.
And so story begins...
Photography Credit: Simon Drakeford, author of " It's a Rough Game but Good Sport: The Life, Times and Personalities of the Shanghai Rugby Football Club "
Jour de Gloire N°9
Jour de Gloire N°9, created by French nez Bertrand Duchaufour, is a fresh and spicy fougère, an elegant and vibrant olfactory interpretation of the short story The smell of victory.
It opens with a green twist echoing the grass and earth of the rugby pitch; warm hay facets recalling cigar smoke; and an uplifting cocktail of aromatic, spicy, and refreshing notes inspired by a Pink Gin, rounded out by the resinous breath of cypress.
The architecture of Jour de Gloire N°9 is sophisticated, structured and perfectly balanced.
A revitalizing and energizing fragrance, leaving a fresh and aromatic trail. Its spicy and radiant heart transports you to exotic horizons, evoking a breeze of freedom. The woody, herbal, and earthy base notes offer you a true escape into nature.
No wonder Jour de Gloire N°9 is the perfect companion for a gentleman enjoying a sporting weekend with friends, followed by an elegant cocktail party in town. A resolutely masculine fragrance that smells just as striking on a sporting woman.
Olfactive pyramid of Jour de Gloire No9
Did you know?
Fougère, pronounced « foo-shair », means fern in French. The name of the fougère fragrance family refers to Fougère Royale, a perfume created by Paul Parquet in 1882, that revolutionized men's perfumery in its time.
It was the first fragrance to include the synthetic note of coumarin (derived from tonka bean) which scent varies from green grassy to sweet almond and tobacco. Fougère fragrances still remain today the most popular style of fragrances for men.
Classic fougères typically feature bergamot (fresh), lavender (aromatic), geranium (floral, green, aromatic), vetiver (earthy, woody), oakmoss (earthy) and coumarin (herbal, sweet) notes. Modern Fougères, such as Jour de Gloire N°9, broaden this structure with additional woody, green, herbal, spicy, and sometimes floral nuances.
A complete fragrance wardrobe should always include a fougère perfume.
Made in France
Jour de Gloire N°9 is exclusively produced in France in cooperation with the French fragrance company Technicoflor.
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