CLASS OF '88
Reintroducing the manly scents of the Reagan era

The ’80s seem a long time ago. The decade’s biggest superstar, Michael Jackson, is broke. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is appearing in Louis Vuitton ads. Reaganomics is now little more than a punch line. But remember how we used to smell back then? The ’80s were an odorous, glorious decade. Men’s colognes were robust and virile, heavy on the musk. “Are we not men?” they asked, their bottles boasting bulbous metallic heads like futuristic phalluses. But how have these scents aged? We tracked them down to find out.

Photography by Joshua Scott