Comme des Garçons (2011)

My 500th perfume review

I’ve previously mentioned that I record all of the fragrances I wear in a database I constructed several years ago. While I don’t typically publish straight-up reviews in my newsletter, I figured it might be nice to celebrate the occasion of my 500th review by posting it publicly. If there’s enough interest maybe I will publish more of them in the future. Enjoy!

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I've had the 2011 CDG EDP (reissued in 2021) for a while now, but I hadn't reviewed it and it seems like the perfect fragrance to reflect on now that I've reached the milestone of 500 fragrances logged in my personal database.

Comme des Garçons 2011 EDP

Comme des Garçons was one of the first fragrance brands to capture my attention. Opening Ceremony (RIP) carried the Play series back in the early 2010s and I was blown away the first time I sniffed Play Black. I couldn't get over how revelatory it smelled: completely different than the department store fruity floral fragrances I was accustomed to at that point. CDG became the touch point for me as to what was possible when you treat fragrance as an art designed for a specific audience rather than a product designed to maximize likability and mainstream appeal.

The 2011 Comme des Garçons (the date is necessary to differentiate it from their original self-titled release from 1994), was designed to be a "fragrance that couldn't exist" in a "bottle that shouldn't exist." Indeed, the bottle is an art object in itself—it comes suspended in a shrink-wrapped sheet of plastic, like an archeological artifact from the future trapped in amber. It is shaped like a melted, bulging pear and the glass is permeated with tiny bubbles, giving it a sort of handblown organic feel like an artisan cup from Pier 1 Imports. It cannot stand on its own.

The fragrance itself opens with a notorious symphony of industrial notes: packing tape, glue, fresh printer toner. The chemical notes are so uncannily realistic that you expect to be able to get high by huffing the perfume. Reviews are peppered with specific scent memories of working in mail rooms and warehouses. The saffron-leather scent of safraleine bubbles up as well, giving the fragrance a plush sueded texture while bolstering the plasticy industrial notes. Inorganic smells are a common theme throughout CDG's repertoire (the Odeur series in particular comes to mind), but I think this example is particularly successful because it deftly conveys the tension between the inorganic and the organic in one composition: after a while a remarkable shift takes place and the scent morphs into a beautiful rendition of lilac. Like a bouquet of freshly-cut flowers in a crystal vase in the center of a freshly-painted white room, the scent weaves back and forth between the industrial and the organic as it dries down. This tension between the two serves as a metaphor for the art of perfumery itself—a meticulously considered blend of the synthetic and natural, designed to create an olfactory illusion.

I love art.
I love perfume.
Here's to 500 more reviews and to the ceaseless joy of smelling.

Notes: aldehydes, saffron, leather, lilac, hawthorn, styrax, industrial glue, brown scotch tape

Nose: Antoine Maisondieu

someday I will publish a post about how I catalog and organize my fragrance collection