# Thomas Kosmala — 1938

> 1938 is a 2025 eau de parfum created by Thomas Kosmala as a limited Dillard's department-store exclusive, commemorating the retailer's 1938 founding in Nashville, Arkansas. It is a fruity-floral-woody

## Essence
1938 is a 2025 eau de parfum created by Thomas Kosmala as a limited Dillard's department-store exclusive, commemorating the retailer's 1938 founding in Nashville, Arkansas. It is a fruity-floral-woody scent built on a blackcurrant-and-peach sweetness with soft jasmine and vanilla absolute, resolving into the house's signature dry-woods-and-amber base. Its framing is immediate and consistent: it lives in the Baccarat Rouge 540 adjacent space the Thomas Kosmala house is known for, read essentially as a softer, sweeter, peachier and less metallic riff on the brand's own No.4.
## Scent Profile
The opening is a juicy cloud of blackcurrant with bright bergamot and neroli, fresh, airy and lightly sweet, with a peppery sparkle some catch on first spray. It is fruity without being heavy, and the ambery-floral Baccarat Rouge 540 signature is recognizable almost immediately, here overlaid with fruit.
Through the heart, peach becomes the defining character. Vanilla absolute and jasmine lend a soft, powdery sophistication, and the peach is what sets 1938 apart from the rest of the house — wearers describe it removing the metallic edge of No.4 and replacing it with a sweet, soft, cookie-dough quality. The fruit-and-vanilla pairing reads creamy and airy rather than cloying.
The drydown is the explicit house signature, described by the brand as a mist of dry woods and amber. Amber leads, joined by sandalwood and a dry-woods accord, while the peach lingers as a soft background sweetness rather than disappearing. The arc is semi-linear, fruitier up top and settling fairly quickly into the sweet ambery-woody base, with blackcurrant, peach, vanilla and amber the clearest notes and the neroli and jasmine reading as soft floral lift.
## Performance
Performance data is still early, but the signal is positive. Wearers describe it as long-lasting and well-judged in strength — not light, but not overpowering — with good rather than overwhelming projection and an easy, all-occasion presence. Given the house's amber-heavy base and reputation for projection, moderate-to-good longevity is plausible and consistent with these reports, though no rigorous hour-by-hour breakdown exists yet. Its weather behavior is undocumented; the fruity-amber profile would conventionally suit cooler weather, but wearers call it broadly all-weather. These claims are best treated as preliminary.
## Wearing Context
Early impressions point to a versatile, perfectly unisex everyday scent, called good for any occasion and weather. Wearers find it fresh, airy and sophisticated, with one naming it a potential signature, and its sweetness and amber base suggest day-to-evening flexibility leaning toward cooler months. The BR540-adjacent profile gives it broad crowd appeal, and the main reservation raised is price rather than wearability.
## Comparisons & DNA
The two anchoring references are Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 and Thomas Kosmala No.4. Against BR540, 1938 reads as a close cousin with vanilla and peach added, the same ambery-sweet DNA softened and fruited. Against the house's own No.4, the read is precise: 1938 trades No.4's metallic edge for peach-driven cookie-dough softness, and many wearers prefer it, with one placing it closer to the No.4 Neon flanker. Since the Thomas Kosmala house is itself broadly seen as BR540-adjacent, the most useful framing is that 1938 is a fruitier sibling to No.4 rather than a scent with its own clones, and a 2025 entry in the long BR540-derivative wave.
## Reception
Reception is early and limited but skews positive among the small number who have sampled it. The recurring praise is the peach-and-vanilla twist, the fresh, perfectly unisex character, the longevity and a preference over the house's No.4. The recurring criticism is price, often called steep for a department-store exclusive, along with a sense that it is another entry in a derivative house DNA that leans heavily on amber. There is no aggregate verdict yet and no major critic review of 1938 itself; the only critical engagement with the house is an earlier Colognoisseur review by Mark Behnke of a different Thomas Kosmala fragrance. The honest summary is that coverage is genuinely sparse and the sentiment should be read as preliminary, with sampling strongly advised over a blind full-bottle purchase.
## Versions & Reformulation
A single composition with no known reformulations, released in 2025 as a one-size limited edition.
## Acquisition Notes
This is a niche, luxury-tier release sold as a department-store exclusive, retailing for $255 for a roughly 100 ml EDP in a single size. The authentic channel is Dillard's, in-store and online, and a low-cost sample or decant exists as the recommended way to test before committing at full price. As a new and limited exclusive, counterfeiting is unlikely, but buying outside Dillard's carries the usual unofficial-seller risk, so purchasing directly is the safest route. No batch-code information is documented.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- Created as a limited Dillard's exclusive marking the retailer's 1938 founding in Nashville, Arkansas.
- Conceived as a "universally wearable olfactory time capsule that blends nostalgia with modernity."
- Thomas Kosmala was reportedly given access to clippings from the Dillard's corporate archive while composing it.
- Its packaging takes design cues from aged archival paper, stationery and receipts.
- The dry-woods-and-amber drydown is promoted as a Thomas Kosmala house signature, tying it to the brand's BR540-adjacent identity.