Many design houses enter the realm of fragrances. Some prove to be timid steps, others become strides of daring and their scents may well end up providing a lion’s share of income for the house. The fragrance which becomes special and long-lasting does so through exquisite formulation coupled with magnetic marketing.
Comme des Garçons number 2 perfume possesses both great architecture of fragrance as well as treasure-like packaging. Fragrant notes of floral and earthy tones reveal themselves in varying strengths and over varying times on the skin. There is an unfolding vocabulary including cedar wood, patchouli, spices, and also a scented homage to the Japanese calligraphic ink known as sumi. Such an amalgam of notes has led bloggers from all around the globe to write of the perfume’s ‘intellectual presence’, its ‘powerful signature’, its ‘mossy and woody notes’ and its being a ‘gorgeous powerhouse of a fragrance’.
And, furthering the specialness of the product is the container – a silvered flask perhaps reminiscent of some item on a 1930s dressing table, but with very modern modelling. Across the body of the metal has been engraved the number 2. Not with the crisp, serifed accuracy of a classic typographer, but like a scrawl; a little adolescent, a little bit like hesitant graffiti. It is studied naughtiness, but very successful, and echoes much of the house’s garment collection.
Comme des Garçons 2 is available at Scottie’s, 4 Blair Street, who also stock works of other international spark like Dries van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. TH
