Brooks Brothers’ new Black Fleece cologne, according to designer Thom Browne, is "evocative of that man sitting in a library or parlor, smoking and drinking whiskey." Why, these are a few of our favorite things! We put it to the test to see if it stacks up. The results: yes and no. Library? No. Smoking? No. Whiskey? No—there’s bourbon mentioned in the parfumeur’s précis, but it’s bourbon pepper, which smells, as you might expect, a lot like pepper. If this Black Fleece man is drinking, he’s sipping a vodka-and-grapefruit Greyhound: Sharp notes of the citrus fruit abound, with a not unwelcome edge of ginger.

And speaking of gray—hounds and otherwise—the package deserves special attention (above). The flacon comes tricked out in a box filled with die-cut gray felted-flannel textiles—a cool, creative touch, and a nod to both Browne’s preferred fabric and Geoffrey Beene’s landmark Grey Flannel fragrance. Beene’s bottle, too, came swathed in the material.

$125, available at brooksbrothers.com

PLUS: While at Black Fleece, we also had a chance to preview Browne’s Spring 2010 footwear for the line. No big surprises here—shoes like the double-soled wingtip brogue (below) are collection standards. But for Spring, the brogue got a tune-up in an appealing new cream color.

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