Are Tom Ford Private Selection fragrances in the same league as Chanel and Guerlain?

Certainly the houses of Chanel and Guerlain are, generally speaking, two of the highest quality perfume providers and have been for many years. You can argue about others, notably Creed, and whether they deserve to occupy the same rareified company. I'm not so sure.

But I am sure that Tom Ford is producing some memorable fragrances in the Private Selection offerings, even though he is relatively new, at least with his own brand though he has worked for other parfumeurs. I own his Noir de Noir and Amber Absolute and find them to be remarkably beautiful and complex, although relatively quite expensive.

Given he continues to hit home runs with his fragrances, do you see the brand becoming the next superstar?

No, Tom Ford doesn't have the same style and class as Guerlain or Chanel. Tom Ford is often loud and obnoxious to me, thick and heavy, while Chanel and Guerlain are smoother, more elegant. At one point I had probably every Tom Ford made and now I'm down to just a few, but my Guerlain and Chanel collection keep growing.

Tom has great packaging and marketing...and that's where it stops for me.

Chanel Pour Monsieur is THE desert island juice for me. Hands down my single fave cologne.

Guerlain Vetiver is second.

I'm starting to think no one does it better than Guerlain. Chanel not far behind.
TF not even close (at this point) But I respect TF because their scents are unique and have MONSTER sillage!

And it's not a fair comparison because Guerlain for example has about a 180 year head start on TF!

One other thing to remember is that Tom Ford, the person, was Creative Director at Yves Saint Laurent when they brought out M7, a timeless, legendary fragrance. To what extent he was directly involved in the formulation I don't know.

Large, established houses like Guerlain and Chanel have been around for so long, put out so many perfumes, and have had so many perfumers and directors working for them, that I have trouble thinking and talking about them as a single entity. I can't say I like or don't like a fragrance house, much less proclaim one is better than another. All i can do is consider them on a fragrance-by-fragrance basis for the reasons I just mentioned.

The Chandos said:

No, Tom Ford doesn't have the same style and class as Guerlain or Chanel. Tom Ford is often loud and obnoxious to me, thick and heavy, while Chanel and Guerlain are smoother, more elegant. At one point I had probably every Tom Ford made and now I'm down to just a few, but my Guerlain and Chanel collection keep growing.

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Which two did you keep from TF then ?

Tobacco Vanille ?
Noir de Noir ?
Tuscan leather ?

Same league as far as niche quality? Yes. I would probably put Tom Fords a little bit higher than those mentioned based on price and places they are sold. Does that mean they're better fragrances? Hardly. This is where it is merely preference.

CHSeifert said:

Which two did you keep from TF then ?

Tobacco Vanille ?
Noir de Noir ?
Tuscan leather ?

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Exactly!
I still love Tuscan Leather and would probably feel the same about Tobacco Vanilla except that I think Odori Tobacco is better. I sold off all of my Noir de Noir but did keep a small decant for myself (it is excellent stuff after all). The last one that I have is Moss Breches, which is honey and moss, and is discontinued. And there you have it, the last four TF in my collection. I will always have Tuscan Leather on hand, though the others I probably wouldn't miss.