Tom Ford’s perfume line has, from the beginning, taken the low road with its high notes. Or maybe, when he launched the line last spring, he just figured out how to make cologne funny and a bit skanky (sexy?), declaring that he wanted to make one of his twelve unisex scents “smell like a man’s crotch.” But does his scent Tuscan Leather actually smell like cocaine? Well, according to cognoscenti of that drug, yes, a bit. “That’s what everyone says,” admits a counterboy at the Ford store on Madison, who adds that one customer even bought a bottle because he thought it smelled like coke. Tuscan Leather goes for $165 for a 50-ml. bottle, about 49 grams, which is way cheaper than the real stuff from Bolivia. What’s the appeal of smelling like you might be clenching your jaw? Ford was traveling in some far-off land without cell-phone reception and could not be reached, his spokeswoman said. Katherine Holmes, a spokesperson for Private Blend, Ford’s fragrance line, says Tuscan Leather is “an original take on a classic leather scent. Saffron, raspberry, and thyme, open to olibanum and night-blooming jasmine,” while “leather, black suede, and amber wood add an intricate richness.” So, no blow anywhere in there? “No.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: Aug 20, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!