RSVP by Richard Hudnut (1936)

R.S.V.P. by Richard Hudnut was launched in 1936, under the name of one of America’s pioneering beauty houses. Richard Alexander Hudnut began by selling perfumes and cosmetics through his father’s New York pharmacy, then developed the business into an internationally known, French-inspired American luxury brand. He was particularly significant because he helped make perfume, cosmetics, and personal grooming a coherent, aspirational world for American women—not merely necessities bought at a druggist’s counter. Although Hudnut himself had died in 1928, the company bearing his name continued to trade on that established reputation for polished, cosmopolitan beauty.

The name R.S.V.P. is drawn from the French phrase répondez s’il vous plaît, meaning “please reply.” In ordinary English speech, it is most naturally pronounced letter by letter—“ar-ess-vee-pee”—while the full French phrase is approximately “ray-pon-day, see voo play.” It is the familiar little request printed at the foot of a formal invitation: a courteous expectation of an answer, and an assurance that one is wanted. Hudnut’s 1937 trade description cleverly stressed that the name could be said easily and without self-consciousness by customers, while the presentation recalled an envelope enclosing a billet-doux—a discreet love letter—sealed with the Richard Hudnut emblem. Thus, the perfume’s name made the purchase itself feel like an invitation: not simply to a party, but to romance, an encounter, or an answer to an admirer.

For a woman of 1936, R.S.V.P. would have suggested social life conducted with graceful ceremony: an engraved invitation, a dinner dance, cocktails, flowers delivered before an evening engagement, or a note slipped into a handbag. Yet it also held a gently flirtatious charge. To “reply, if you please” is a request, not a command; it leaves room for choice, anticipation, and a little feminine mystery. The name evoked the poised woman who is socially assured enough to receive invitations, selective enough not to accept them all, and glamorous enough to be remembered after she has gone.

Its launch belongs to the later years of the Great Depression, a decade often called the interwar period. Economic hardship existed beside a powerful appetite for romance, spectacle, and affordable luxury: cinema, department-store beauty culture, and fashion offered a polished escape from daily uncertainty. Women’s dress had moved away from the boyish straightness of the 1920s toward a more elongated, body-conscious femininity—fluid bias-cut gowns, soft drapery, defined waists, graceful evening clothes, and, later in the decade, broader shoulders. Hollywood stars made this elegance widely desirable, while cosmetics enabled women to participate in its glamour at many price levels.

In scent, “R.S.V.P.” suggests a perfume that is polished but not innocent: an aromatic, bright entrance like the first breath of evening air, followed by flowers made more intriguing with spice and an undertone of warm skin. Its floral-chypre character would translate the name’s flirtation into something dry, self-possessed, and slightly secretive rather than sugary or merely pretty. The leafy bitterness, mossy woods, pungent patchouli, musk, and muted amber create the impression of a woman in a dark velvet gown or tailored suit, carrying the last trace of a garden and forest path into a warmly lit room.

R.S.V.P. was not unusual in choosing a floral-chypre structure; by 1936, the chypre idiom—especially its oakmoss-and-patchouli contrast—was already an established mark of sophistication after Coty’s influential modernized Chypre of 1917. Nor was it out of step with the decade’s increasingly refined and substantial perfumes, in which dense florals, animalic warmth, woods, and new synthetic materials gave scents greater diffusion and character. What distinguishes R.S.V.P., at least in its advertised identity, is the unusually direct union of a dry, shadowed floral chypre with the imagery of the love letter and the answered invitation: it made a fashionable 1930s perfume accord feel personal, romantic, and deliberately provocative—“a perfume after a man’s heart,” but still worn on the woman’s own terms.

Fragrance Composition:

So what does it smell like? RSVP is classified as a floral chypre fragrance for women, with spicy-floral, woody-mossy, leafy-green, musky, and warm amber facets. Piquant and evocative of a shadowed forest, it unfolds from a brisk bitter-green freshness into a peppered floral heart, then settles into a pungent, dry woodland trail of moss, roots, patchouli, sandalwood, soft animalic musk, and a subdued amber warmth.

• Top notes: bergamot, lemon, bitter orange, petitgrain, neroli, coriander, clary sage, galbanum
• Middle notes: rose, jasmine, geranium, carnation, ylang-ylang, orange blossom, narcissus, orris, violet, clove, cinnamon, cassia, nutmeg, black pepper, eugenol
• Base notes: tonka bean, sandalwood, oakmoss, patchouli, musk, ambergris, labdanum, vetiver, cedarwood, cypress, tree moss, benzoin, styrax, olibanum, vanilla, vanillin, coumarin, civet, castoreum, musk ketone, musk ambrette

Scent Profile:

R.S.V.P. opens with the crisp, almost sparkling bitterness of bergamot: not a sweet orange note, but a fragrant green citrus peel with a faintly floral, tea-like elegance. Lemon sharpens it with the bright sting of freshly cut rind, while bitter orange brings a darker, more aromatic citrus quality—tart peel, bitter pith, and the suggestion of orange leaves crushed between the fingers. Petitgrain, distilled from the twigs and leaves of the bitter-orange tree, carries this impression further into the greenery: it is woody, leafy, faintly bitter, and lightly floral, like a sun-warmed citrus grove after pruning. Neroli and orange blossom soften these green materials. Neroli, distilled from the flower, is cool, airy, and faintly metallic, with a clean orange-flower freshness; orange blossom, more sumptuous and honeyed, contributes the headier scent of white petals warmed by skin and sun. Together, they prevent the opening from becoming stern, giving its briskness an intimate, floral glow.

Coriander adds a curious peppery-citrus effect, at once dry, slightly nutty, and aromatic; it makes the citrus feel more sophisticated, as if bright fruit had been scattered with crushed seeds. Clary sage introduces a dusky herbal note with a tea-like, tobacco-like, almost suede-like warmth, bridging the fresh top to the darker base. Galbanum supplies the perfume’s most vivid leafy-green stroke. Derived from the resin of a Persian plant, it can smell startlingly like snapped stems, bitter sap, damp leaves, and green beans; here it gives R.S.V.P. its piquant, forest-edge character and makes the floral heart seem to emerge from living foliage rather than from a vase.

The heart is a rich but deliberately dry floral arrangement. Rose provides velvety petals and a faintly lemony, wine-like softness, while jasmine brings the bloom closer to the skin with its narcotic sweetness, indolic warmth, and subtle animalic breath. Geranium does not merely imitate rose; it gives the rose a cool, green, minty leaf effect, as though the stems and serrated foliage were included with the flowers. Carnation contributes a floral clove-like spice—pink petals dusted with pepper and cinnamon—while ylang-ylang unfurls in creamy, tropical waves, its banana-like, slightly medicinal sweetness rounding the sharper petals. Orange blossom repeats the white-flower radiance of the opening, now more voluptuous, and narcissus lends a strange, compelling green floral depth: honeyed yet hay-like, earthy, pollen-rich, and faintly leathery.

Orris gives the bouquet its cool rootiness. True orris butter comes from aged iris rhizomes rather than the flower itself, and smells softly powdery, woody, carrot-like, and faintly violet-toned; it lends the florals a silvery, elegant restraint. Violet, by contrast, cannot yield a useful natural essence in the way rose or jasmine can. Its recognizable perfume character is therefore created chiefly with violet-ionone materials, aroma chemicals that suggest the flower’s delicate petal sweetness while also bringing a dry, woody, cosmetic-powder nuance. In a chypre such as this, that synthetic violet effect is especially useful: it enhances the natural rooty quality of orris and creates a cool floral shadow over the warmer rose, jasmine, and ylang-ylang.

The spices turn the bouquet from romantic to provocative. Clove smells warm, dark, and almost medicinal, its character intensified by eugenol, the naturally occurring clove material that can also be isolated or made synthetically. Eugenol brings a vivid, phenolic clove heat—like a clove bud pressed between the fingers—and gives carnation its characteristic spicy illusion. Cinnamon and cassia add sweet, woody bark and a hot red-brown warmth; cassia is usually more forceful, darker, and more coumarinic than the finer, softer cinnamon bark effect. Nutmeg introduces a dry, dusty, camphoraceous spice, while black pepper flashes with a bright, prickling, almost lemony heat. Together they make the florals feel peppered and alive, rather than lushly sweet.

The base begins with tonka bean, whose scent is warm, hay-like, almondy, and softly tobacco-like. Much of this character comes from coumarin, a natural constituent of tonka that has long also been produced synthetically for perfumery. Coumarin smells of newly mown hay, vanilla-scented tobacco, sweet grasses, and dried almonds; it links the floral heart to the mosses and woods, giving the perfume a soft golden warmth without making it overtly edible. Vanilla and vanillin deepen that warmth. Natural vanilla has a dark, rum-like, balsamic complexity, whereas vanillin—whether isolated from natural sources or synthesized—delivers the clearer, more radiant familiar vanilla note. In combination they temper the austere mosses and make the amber accord feel softly illuminated from within.

Sandalwood spreads a creamy, milky woodiness through the base, smooth as polished pale wood and faintly rosy in its sweetness. Patchouli brings the opposite texture: dark earth, damp leaves, camphor, old wood, and a trace of cocoa-like richness. Vetiver smells like dry roots pulled from cool soil—smoky, grassy, bitter, and faintly salty—while cedarwood supplies pencil shavings, dry timber, and a clean, almost austere vertical line. Cypress adds the aromatic breath of conifer needles and resinous wood, strengthening the sensation of walking beneath dark branches. Tree moss extends the forest illusion with a damp, lichenous, shadowy-green effect.

Oakmoss is the essential chypre material, giving the fragrance its mossy depth and its beautifully contradictory texture: dry yet humid, bitter yet softly leathery, like wet bark, autumn leaves, and the underside of a stone in a woodland hollow. Labdanum, the resin of rockrose, warms this mossiness with an ambery, leathery, sun-baked richness. Benzoin adds a smoother balsamic sweetness—vanillic, resinous, and slightly almond-like—while styrax gives a darker, smoky, leather-balsam note with a faint medicinal edge. Olibanum, or frankincense, lifts the whole base with cool, silvery smoke and lemony resin, preventing the amber materials from becoming too heavy. The result is an amber accord that remains subdued and dry: more the warmth of resin-coated wood than a glowing oriental sweetness.

Musk, ambergris, civet, and castoreum give R.S.V.P. its intimate, animalic undertone. Natural musk historically had a warm, skin-like, sweetly animal scent, though it is not used in modern perfumery; musk ketone and musk ambrette were early synthetic musks that provided a soft, powdery, persistent warmth and helped flowers linger on fabric and skin. Ambergris, traditionally obtained from the sperm whale and now generally represented by substitutes, contributes a saline, mineral, skin-warm radiance that makes the floral notes seem to breathe. Civet, used only in minute quantity, can lend a feline, honeyed, sensual warmth; castoreum brings a darker leathery, smoky, suede-like effect. Their purpose is not to make the perfume smell overtly animalic, but to give the flowers body, depth, and the faint suggestion of warm living skin beneath their polished surface.

R.S.V.P. therefore reads as a true floral chypre of its period: bright citrus and torn green leaves at first, then a rose-and-jasmine bouquet sharpened with carnation spice, pepper, and cool iris-violet shadow. As it dries down, the perfume enters its dark woodland phase—oakmoss, patchouli, roots, cedar, cypress, balsams, ambered labdanum, and a whisper of animalic musk—leaving a pungent yet elegant trail that feels like flowers worn into a forest at dusk.

Bottles:

The deluxe one-ounce R.S.V.P. parfum flacon is a particularly charming example of 1930s perfume presentation, its slim rectangular body conceived as an envelope in glass. The reverse is molded with the suggestion of an envelope flap, turning the bottle into a three-dimensional billet-doux and extending the fragrance’s romantic name and packaging theme into the object itself. Clear crystal forms the central field, while the sides are framed by demi-lune columns of vertically ribbed yellow-orange Bakelite. These warm, translucent panels lend the bottle a vivid Art Deco contrast of material and color, making the clear glass seem even brighter and more jewel-like. A ground-glass spherical stopper, finished in gold lacquer, completes the design with a small note of gilt glamour. Measuring approximately 4½ inches wide by 4½ inches high, it held one ounce of parfum.

A smaller half-ounce parfum bottle retained the same envelope-shaped silhouette and molded flap motif, but interpreted it more quietly. Rather than being framed in yellow-orange Bakelite, its sides were made of frosted glass. This gave the little flacon a cooler, more restrained appearance: the opaque, softly ribbed-looking side treatment set off the transparent center without the warmth or color of Bakelite. At only about 2¼ inches tall, it was a compact miniature of the deluxe design, yet still carried the unmistakable love-letter identity of R.S.V.P.

Another half-ounce version simplified the idea further. It remained rectangular and slightly square, with the same envelope-inspired form, but dispensed with side columns altogether. Its sides were straight, allowing the transparent glass, molded flap, amber perfume, and white R.S.V.P. label to take precedence. This plainer variation was perhaps the most modern-looking of the three: less decorative, yet still eloquent in its geometry, like a formal envelope reduced to its most essential lines.

Fate of the Fragrance:

R.S.V.P. enjoyed a notably long commercial life, remaining in circulation from its 1936 introduction through at least 1958, although its final discontinuation date is not known. It began as a deliberately romantic perfume, promoted in 1937 as a “French bouquet” with a heady, flirtatious character—one intended to appeal to a man’s heart, but presented as a woman’s own secret weapon of charm. The name, the fragrance, and the package were conceived as one unified gesture of courtship. Its envelope-like box suggested a billet-doux, or love letter, sealed with the Richard Hudnut name; R.S.V.P. was, in effect, an invitation rendered in perfume.

By 1938, Hudnut had positioned it clearly as a gift fragrance at several levels of luxury. A dram package sold for $1.25, while the half-ounce was $5, the one-ounce $10, and the impressive four-ounce bottle cost $30—a substantial purchase during the Depression era. This range allowed R.S.V.P. to serve both as an accessible romantic token and as a serious luxury perfume. Its association with Valentine’s Day soon became especially strong. In 1940, the dram bottle was promoted as a spicy, “come-hither” perfume perched on a red rayon-satin heart; the following year, Hudnut offered it fastened to a red satin heart sachet, enclosed in its white-and-gold box and a self-mailing carton. The perfume was not simply sold as a fragrance, but as a ready-made declaration of affection.

During the war years, R.S.V.P. retained its place as a “fragrance favorite,” with advertisements stressing that it was “always a welcomed remembrance.” Even a $30 four-ounce bottle was still available in 1942, alongside more moderately priced sizes, showing that Hudnut continued to treat the perfume as a prestige item while maintaining inexpensive gift editions. Its wartime interruption appears to have affected the availability of its more elaborate presentation, however. In 1946, after “war-time exile,” R.S.V.P. returned to store counters in a handsome rectangular, diamond-cut flacon with a spherical glass stopper. Its gold-spotted label, designed by Richard M. Krause, bore the perfume name in distinctive black lettering—an elegant postwar renewal of a prewar romantic classic.

After the war, Hudnut broadened R.S.V.P. from a special-occasion perfume into a versatile part of its beauty offerings. It appeared in a French-blue taffeta purse kit with DuBarry lipstick and Gemey Concentrate, making it suitable for touch-ups away from home. Valentine promotions continued in 1948, when a dram bottle came in a tiny envelope-shaped box attached to a cerise-lined, Cupid-decorated mailing carton. In 1949 and 1950, R.S.V.P. was paired with Hudnut’s Vogue essence in whimsical “Hearts and Flowers” piano boxes: the little gilt paperboard piano rolled open to reveal the two fragrances. Such packaging preserved the perfume’s original language of sentiment and romance, but expressed it in the cheerful, novelty-gift style of the postwar years.

The perfume’s public character also seems to have softened over time. Its early advertising emphasized a heady, spicy, flirtatious allure; by 1950 it was described as a “lovely light, sweet” essence suitable for lavish all-over use as a hot-weather refresher. This may reflect a change in advertising language, a lighter presentation or concentration, or possibly an adjustment to the formula—though the advertisements alone cannot establish a definite reformulation. By the early 1950s, R.S.V.P. was still sold as an essence in its own right, appeared with Gemey in Carr-Lowrey bottles, and in 1954 expanded into a non-sticky lotion cologne for all-over body use. In 1956, Hudnut even adapted it to the modern aerosol format: R.S.V.P. Aerosol Mist came in a mauve plastic-coated bottle with a matching metallic carton.

Thus, R.S.V.P. evolved from a sophisticated 1930s floral chypre framed as a scented love letter into a durable Hudnut franchise—one that could be worn as perfume, essence, lotion cologne, or aerosol mist, and given in heart-shaped, envelope-shaped, purse-sized, or novelty-piano packages. Its survival into 1958 suggests that the name and its romantic promise continued to resonate long after its original 1930s world had passed.