Thomas Kosmala — 1938
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.