When @tamsinblanchard tweeted that the new Comme des Garcons perfume smelled of brown tape and industrial glue, we knew we had to get a sample to test, after all, this could be the smell of stationery in a bottle and you KNOW how geeky we are about paper and notebooks.
So here it is, in a bobbly glass bottle that wont stand up (deliberately). It is packaged in a simple white box and the bottle comes vacu-packed, which once you have released it from its plastic prison, turns out to the the perfect fit for a left handed perfume sprayer ( a first). Already (pre-sniffing) I love it.
The smell is not for everyone, remember this is edgy CdG here. It has a weird, industrial floral top note, like smelling delicate flowers in a warehouse. The official press release says its ‘composites of aldehydes and safraleine, opening slowly to hawthorns and derivations of lilac’. Whatever, it’s the next stage that is fascinating, it DOES turn into the smell of glue, printing machines, paper, and brown tape. And new books.
The perfume is just called Comme des Garcons, ‘a new perfume’ as far as I can see. This completely undersells it, so I have renamed it Stationery.
Available from Dover Street Market from early November.
Perfectly designed to be held in the left hand…probably unintentional but much appreciated by me.
I’m an Odeur 53 fan myself but I like the bottle and the smell of brown paper so might add this to my Christmas list.