Prada Paradigme, Built From the Bottom Up

Prada began in 1913 as Fratelli Prada, a leather goods shop opened in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II by brothers Mario and Martino Prada. It sold steamer trunks and travel cases. Mario's granddaughter Miuccia Prada took over in 1978 and turned the house into the place people go for ideas that look plain and are not. That habit is exactly what Prada Paradigme is about. Launched in 2025, it was composed by Marie Salamagne, Bruno Jovanovic and Nicolas Bonneville, who built it upside down, from the base up, in an inverted pyramid that echoes the Prada triangle. The base is ambery woods with Peru balsam, benzoin and guaiac. Bourbon geranium sits in the heart and Calabrian bergamot and musks finish the top. The result moves between warmth and freshness without picking a side. It is also refillable, and according to Prada a 150 ml refill saves 65 percent of the glass, 75 percent of the plastic and all of the metal compared with three new 50 ml bottles. The first grid starts there.

If Paradigme is the new signature, Luna Rossa is the long running one. The line takes its name from the Luna Rossa sailing team, which competes in the America's Cup, and it has been the house's main fragrance family for years. The Eau de Toilette started the line in 2012, and Luna Rossa Ocean came in 2021, made by Anne Flipo and Carlos Benaim. The four bottles here read like four moods. Black is sweet and woody over amber, Carbon is lavender with a licorice accord and cypress, Ocean is lemon, saffron and oakwood, and the original is the fresh citrus and woods one. A quick way to choose a men's cologne from a line this big is to spray two on opposite wrists and go about your day. By lunch one of them will have stopped interesting you, and that is your answer.

Paradigme leans warm, so this grid looks at other houses doing amber, leather and vanilla. Gucci Guilty Pour Homme Elixir is a woody leather with orris butter and benzoin, peppered with pimento and nutmeg. Azzaro came from designer Loris Azzaro, who created the house in 1967, and The Most Wanted Parfum carries the Wanted line, born in 2016, into red ginger, toffee and bourbon vanilla. Tom Ford Eau d'Ombre Leather borrows its name from Ombre Leather, created by Sonia Constant, and adds ginger, coriander and cardamom over a glowing leather accord. Jo Malone London began in 1994 on Walton Street in London, and Amber Labdanum Cologne Intense pairs bitter orange, labdanum and amber with vanilla and roasted oak. What I would skip is the fourth spray. These are dense, and warm scents read as loud on a chest long before they read as warm to you. Two sprays, and let the rest of the day do the work.

If I had to live with one scent from this page for a month, I would pick it the way I pick a jacket. It has to work on an ordinary Tuesday before it works on a special night. Paradigme is a strong candidate for that, because it is warm enough for evenings and fresh enough for a desk. Luna Rossa Carbon is the dependable second choice, and the Tom Ford is the one for when I want a change. Wear whatever you choose for a week before you form an opinion, and keep the travel size in a bag so you notice when you reach for it.

Paradigme is built from the base up, so I like to test it against other scents that start warm and stay there. Start with the Prada family: the Paradigme Le Parfum, the Infusion de Santal Chai and the Infusion de Vanille. For leather and oud, the Tom Ford Ombré Leather, Noir Extreme and Oud Minérale are the obvious names to try next to it. Jo Malone London brings Oud & Bergamot and Hinoki & Cedarwood, and the Maison Francis Kurkdjian Amyris Homme and L'Homme À la Rose give you a softer, more floral angle. Spray one bottle on each forearm and compare them an hour later, not at the counter. What I would skip: the Light Blue bottles from Dolce & Gabbana, if warmth is what you came for.