Why do all these 15-year-old boys want to smell like the 1990s?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For high-school boys, it’s suddenly cool to smell old. Colognes—some from the 1990s—are having a resurgence with a new fan base: teens obsessed with building an expensive collection.

They are part of a group searching for classic scents including Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male, Dior Sauvage and Giorgio Armani Acqua di Giò, thanks to social media. Legacy brands have experienced significant growth over the past year, beauty executives say. Younger consumers might pay between $60 and $150 for a full bottle, scrounge for smaller samples or happily snatch a family hand-me-down.

Ryan Glicksman, 14, started wearing Acqua di Giò, a citrusy scent that was launched in 1996, after finding it abandoned in the back of his father’s bathroom cabinet. His haul also included Le Male, with its famous sculpted male torso bottle, which was launched in 1995. He took both bottles to sleep-away camp in Wisconsin this summer.

Now he sprays on the fragrances before school. “It’s still cool, I guess," says Ryan, who lives in Buffalo Grove, Ill. Ryan’s room now includes dozens of old and new fragrances neatly displayed on a tray.

Walking in feels like visiting a perfume counter, says his father, Jeff Glicksman. “I stopped wearing cologne because I didn’t need to impress anyone anymore," says the finance manager, who was happy to give away his old bottles. About 44% of boys ages 12 to 14 and 57% ages 15 to 17 use fragrance, according to market-research firm Mintel.