Go Figure

THE FASHION WORLD HAS A NEW FAVORITE FRUIT

Literature's first great seduction, when the master insinuator persuaded Eve to take a bite, brought man fashion—in fig-leaf form. But the fig itself has been no slouch in the sensuality department, its heady, ripe sweetness having lulled man for more than 5,000 years now. In addition to the Garden of Eden, figs were grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, put into Egyptian tombs, and traded in Phoenicia; later, Attic figs were so prized that it was a crime to smuggle them out of Athens. But it's been downhill since then. One word: Newtons. And never mind that in Italy today the word for fig is a vulgar wolfcall (to which sex depends on whether you're yelling "Che fica" or "Che fico"). But the luscious fruit—which when overripe, almost bursting, is the last word in decadence, with more sugar content than any common fruit—is getting an image makeover courtesy of the world's top perfumers. Fashion-insider favorites L'Artisan Parfumeur, Diptyque, L'Occitane, and Demeter have all come out with prominent fig notes, Now even designers are climbing the ficus tree: Marc Jacobs's new men's fragrance is a figgy scent, and Fresh Index has a fig blend. "I love eating figs, and I love the smell," says London's scent mix master Jo Malone, whose Wild Fig & Cassis fragrance debuts this fall (the cassis's bitterness undercuts the fig's high sugar content). "Figs have a very chameleon quality—you can eat them as dessert, or in pasta, or with ham." Wild Fig & Cassis is for men or women and packs a sensual punch. Che fico, indeed!

DAVID COLMAN