Re-View: Kenzo & Autumn Perspec

Of course i'd like to think I'm not a stark raving fashionphile because some part of me is convinced I'm this super-mega-rennaissance type and my main source of insecurity is being labelled by anything I do, but I am obsessed with many aspects of fashion (fragrance is the biggest one, obviously)

What most people day to day don't understand about fashion, specifically about the design house and couture worlds, is that these clothes should be thought of as wearable canvases. There's always a color piece written up in some newspaper or newscast about how audacious and crazy some of the designs are, but really they are just paintings meant to expand our conceptual horizons and are not meant to demand consumers wear them en masse. I could explore that idea more, but I'll spare the time. The thing enjoy about fashion almost as much as fragrance (a close second) is the art of the fashion show. The scenery, the sound, the whole context which comes from the designer's universe to put this moving art gallery inside, all lasting for a mere 10 to 20 minutes, and each one never being able to be witnessed in person again. The supermodel era brought on the plain, white runway, which is what everybody thinks of when they think about fashion shows, but in the past decade designers of every calibre have certainly been as highly inventive with set design as major tech firms have been with our ever-evolving persoanl devices. To get a taste of what I am trying to convey I strongly suggest to anybody who is unfamiliar with fashion to watch videos of Alexander McQueen's shows from the 90's up until 2010 when he unfortunately left this earth.

Speaking of Alexander McQueen, I took news of his death in February of 2010 very hard. Not that I knew very much about him, but I knew his work, and his set design, and his universe was a deep inspiration for me and continues to be to this day. The more I learn about him after his life only multiples the deep respect and affinity I have for him ans his work. What does this have to do with fragrance, you might ask. Well, the scent of one fragrance in particular gives me vivid McQueen imagery, so much so it's how I describe it.

Kenzo Pour Homme 

by Kenzo. 1991

To describe this fragrance I use two words:

Plato's Atlantis

That is the name of Alexander McQueen's final fashion show, which was his Spring/Summer 2010 line shown at Paris Fashion Week in 2009. It's the only way I can comprehend Kenzo Pour Homme logically in my own mind. To me, it is a marine fragance. Although rich in wood notes, the ozone and overall outer layer scream seaside scents to me. But it's not marine in your average summer-season aquatic fragrance, it is deep, dark, and dare I say gothic. There is a salty sourness that bites when I use this fragrance, and the deep woods underneath add a brown layer that only further masks the dark marine mystique. The moody sea scents strongly echo the melancholy and understated elegance of Plato's Atlantis, and the touch of modernity makes me recall the moving camera arms and their cold but stunning ballet as they tracked the models and audience alike. I have yet to smell anything similar to Kenzo Pour Homme and that is something I am both disturbed and delighted by.

I do have to say that Kenzo Pour Homme is not something I routinely use and most days I feel it is a highly inappropriate, but the elaborate art the fragrance creates for me is something that I will treasure forever.

The fragrance is not for every man, but it's position bridging the thick, pitch black ("night") scents with the noble marine and wood notes is easily suited to anybody identifying themselves as being harbingers of the little known masculine mystique.

Use it wisely, guys.

My Take: A Hankering for a Flankering

It's so fucking hot. Honestly. Yes, up here in the north the mid-60's counts as hot (That's roughly 18 to 20 for you Celsius lovers). Even I know it's not THAT hot per se, I've been in a 100 degree bake-your-goddamned-brains-out situation a few times, but the fact it's hit that in the first part of June just weeks after the final dying dusts of snow is killing me, and the mysterious lack of June wind is making me cook even more. I'm horrified thinking about what will happen in July and August. Like it or not, summer is here, and summer is intense. Bring on the seasonal flankers!

Seasonal flankers interest me because for some reason, some perfumier decided "We should have a variance of this fragrance for summer, because, well, things smell differently in the heat and spring blooms bring a different general aroma to the atmosphere". Sound logic on paper, but is it really that necessary? Think about it, our experience of smell is tied to... exactly that, experience. 

Before I go on, for those without the vocab, a flanker is a follow-up perfume or cologne that is inspired by one before it, usually with a tag on its name. I.e. an original would be Euphoria, and a flanker would be Euphoria Intense. Seasonal flankers are most commonly summer flankers, editions that are allegedly more appropriate for the warmer months.

Back to the show:

We know what something smells like in our minds because we've smelled it at some time before and have created a chronological reference for that time. How conscious are we of categorizing the smell of particular items based on the time of year we smelled them? Other than natural phenomena (the trees and flowers of places you've been in spring and summer) and cultural phenomena (gingerbread at Christmas time), I see no logic behind it. I've smelled macaroni and cheese, Kraft Dinner for my Canadian peeps, and know what it smells like well, but I can't say as I'm able to logically categorize it into a time of year. Given this puzzlement and oodles of similar smells that I'm unable to categorize seasonally because they aren't a seasonal occurence in my life, I find the rapidly growing need for seasonal flankers to be downright fascinating. 

Marketing ploy to increase variety and sales? Probably a bit of that. An artistic variation of composition, creating a whole new medium of perfume grouping and pairing within the medium of perfumery as a whole, creating fragrances worthy to stand on their own? Maybe. All in all, unless something is a total standout, a seasonal flanker is silly to me and I tend to view it with a negative impression initially. That being said, I don't not enjoy a seasonal flanker (DOUBLE NEGATIVE POLICE ALERTED!). Consider this: If a summer version of a fragrance is good and able to stand on its own, why not give it it's own name in the first place? I'll tell you why not. Branding. Ka-Ching. That about sums it up. And fragrance houses can get away with it. We are lucky to live in a time, those of us in the first world anyways, where almost everything is at our fingertips in any time of year. For example, before post-industiral civilizations people could ONLY ever eat what was in season. Nowadays most people need to refer to recipe pins on Pinterest to determine what kind of melon is in season because they see melons at their market or bodega any day. This is our collective mentality and the re-seasoning (can't think of a better word) of fragrance is 99% branding novelty and probably only 1% legit perfumery, in my own not-so-humble opinion anyways.

That thesis being stated, I can handle it for now, fragrance houses, but please do not multiply flankers. I don't EVER want to see a chain of fragrances like.... "DAFFODIL SPRINGS" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SUMMER" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS NIGHT" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SUMMER NIGHT" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SPORT" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SPORT SUMMER" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SUMMER SPORT NIGHT" "DAFFODIL SPRINGS SUMMER SPORT NIGHT SPECIAL RESERVE" and any possible combination I haven't had the time to mention. That would kinda piss me off.

Earlier I mentioned Euphoria Intense, a beautiful Calvin Klein men's fragrance that I enjoy. It's thick and fruity and considering the heat I think it pairs well with me now. I definitely need to review it this summer.

Stay hydrated, get tan, wear some SPF if you're tan enough, smell good, and peace out!

The Main: Consumer's Choice - MEN

Yes, the time is here to cover the main event as far as I'm concerned, the Consumer's Choice award nominees for men's fragrances. And yes, as you can tell by my style of posts, I am a fan of fame and fortune, and I obsess over awards. While many choose to say that awards aren't a good marker of quality I have to content that without them we would not have the opportunity to use a critical mind in our experiences. If everything deserves an equal position in the grand scheme of things, then why bother innovate or create new things? Awards allow us to view an entirety within a small window or viewpoint. It's like a big, collective TED talk. Of course nobody has to agree with awards, how they're awarded, who or what should have won, etc., but the point is we should value the chance to use a greater POV of looking at the inside from out that awards bring.

Speech over! Down to business.

This year, the Fragrance Foundation offered up four nominees for Consumer's Choice in men's fragrances. Yes, they decided to nominate 6 in the women's category but only 4 in the men's (proving the Consumer's Choice awards are heavily a marketing ploy, but oh well), and yes this lineup is quite a bit different than the finalists in contention for the main prizes that foundation voters select. Are the Consumer's Choice nominations consolation for not being in contention for the big prizes, or sponsored social media advertising pandering? Or as I call it, "Adverpandering". We'll never really know, but I digress. Regardless of the legitimacy of the bandwagon I am still getting on it, as my love of fragrance outweighs my sense of economic morality.

Let's jump in. In my handy dandy sample packet that was sent out to first so many people who registered to vote, I found something amiss. Despite there being samples for all 6 women's nominated fragrances there were only 3 of the men's. One of the fragrances was mising outright. I thought perhaps an attached sample had gotten loose, but on its page there wasn't even a trace of any type of publication adhesive whether it be tape, glue, or some other industrial emulsion. Considering each other sample looked fairly unique and sourced from distributors to the foundation, I could only assume the distributor just did not submit samples. After much personal deliberation I decided that rather than approximate my judgement of the missing fragrance I am awarding it a big fat 0. A goose egg because they did not provide a sample. This was tough to do because the nominated fragrance in question is A*MEN Pure Leather, a flanker to the famous A*MEN by Thierry Mugler, which is one of my top 5 fragrances of all time (If I had to make such a list). But after I overcame that internal anxiety laden moment, I was at least thankful that my work had been cut down for me.

The three remaining nominated fragrances are:

• Legend by Montblanc
• Vince Camuto for Men
• Acqua di Gio Essenza by Armani

Because there are only three, I'll spare the lengthy countdown. This is also because, honestly, my decision on which one to choose was painfully easy. Now don't get me wrong, the one that I picked is definitely a deserving scent, but there is a part of me that enjoys the subjective deliberation, the pros and cons list, the mental struggle, and so on of picking a winner. (Or picking which one I'm going to vote for, at least).

So, without too much fanfair, my selection is:

Legend by Montblanc

The first thing that hits you with Legend is "Wow. Another sweet fragrance", but like so many good fragrances for the ages Legend might have an assaulting first split second, but the full body after shows it is a true star. It falls in a category I've created in my own mind called "Dark Cream", the type of deeper, woody scent that comes off as dessert inspired but doesn't quite trek into sugar territory. Lately this style has seemed to be en vogue and I don't believe it will pass any time in the near future. Give it to 2020, but hey, who's predicting?

Anyways, that is my pick and vote for the category this year. Vince Camuto for men and Acqua di Gio Essenza definitely have their time and place, but neither gave me a sense of inspiration nor a distinct character of innovation.

The awards will be revealed soon, and I will provide an ample wrap up of the men's selections!

Comin' Up Soon: My next review, and it's a new purchase!

Featurette's Syndrome: Ladies Night! Women's Consumer Choice

Featurette: Consumer Choice Nominee Smelling Session Part 1, For the lovely, lovely ladies.

Summer officially hit the far north. Finally. It has been a long winter, which is how the winters used to be before all of this warming nonsense. But anyways. It was damn nice to see a hot day, but it did look bizarre considering how there are still some spots of snow here and there. Regardless, I don't trust the outdoors when nature lapses into multiple personality disorder, so I'm holed up with my collection and contemplating how this big busy barnyard of bottles is going to work in in the scheme to give me total world domination. One day at a time I guess.

My collection grew by 8 to 10 bottles and a handful of samples in the past couple of months. I'm still digesting them mentally, using the ones I like frequently, and getting to know them and how they fit into the collection in the long run. (I'm reminded of Linda Belcher singing to her Little Babies collection on Bob's Burgers. Best show ever by the way, check it out.) Because I'm currently in a post-mass-purchase euphoria, I can't comprehend much in the way of a review or thesis. However, not to fear, I received my sampler of the nominees for the FiFi... err.... Fragrance Foundation Awards Consumer Choice categories yesterday.

I've said before I'd swear off women's fragrances from my content because they are the infinite, dominant force in the fragrance world and frankly don't need to be bandied about anymore, but seeing as I've been granted the full sample selection and a vote I feel it would be a missed opportunity without adding my two cents. And, although anybody could have registered, I still feel special and glamourous voting, like somebody voting for the Oscars. Anyways, let's push on.

The nominees and samples for the women's category consisted of:

• Fame by Lady GaGa
• Dot by Marc Jacobs
• Girlfriend by Justin Bieber
• Premiere by Gucci
• La Vie Est Belle by Lancome
• and Coco Noir by Chanel

I sampled each one blind (with assistance), then I smelled each one again knowing which was which, because to me bottling is a pertinent X factor. (I did make one switch in the ranks because of it, but it didn't matter as there is only one possible vote.)

Anyways, let's start with the bottom of the ranks and work up. Last and least was Girlfriend. I mean, it smells hideous as is. I can definitely see a watered down version being worn by juniors and high school girls (perhaps a Bonne-Belle like experience), but it has the strong potency of an adult fragrance that doesn't match. It's a bit like the stale fruit juice left open from a kegger the night before which didn't quite make it to being mixed with the hard liquor. Seeing what name and bottle went with it just made it even worse.

Second to last was Coco Noir. Chanel's bold attempt at a classic French era women's evening fragrance seemed a bit too strong and ashen for my tastes, but I could definitely see where they were going with it. The deeper notes are definitely en vogue for 2013. Although it is a great fragrance it did not quite have the gravitas to be fragrance of the year.

4th place overall was Dot by Marc Jacobs. I LOVE Marc Jacobs the designer and the brand, especially the men's fragrances, and I even love this fragrance, Dot. However, much like my opinion about Coco Noir, the notes are too ordinarily classic. While Dot is more fresh and has an up to date floral/botanical style to give it a bit more of a fun kick it doesn't scream fragrance of the year.

3rd was La Vie Est Belle. Sweet, charming, and sophisticated, but not too sophisticated to detract from the soft perfume allure. It definitely has the gourmand feel but has just enough fluff and duff to make it float away from being a heavy dessert disaster. Again, great on its own merits, but it did not have an X factor.

That left just two, and I couldn't decide which was better for the longest time. On one hand, Fame had a warm, sweet, and even leathery modern aura, but on the other hand Premiere NAILED a 21st century take on a cosmopolitan musk-like experience. I sampled both a few rounds, rolled the feeling around in my head, made notes, recited poetry, and in the end, I had to give it to...

Fame 
by Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa. Wow. Picking a huge celebutante's fragrance surprised the hell out of me. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but this scent stuck with me in a good way. Although both Fame and Premiere I absolutely adored, the feeling behind Fame felt to be the more modern and evolutionary of the two; definitely fragrance of the year worthy. And the innovative opaque black liquid in a clear bottle didn't hurt either. I recommend trying any of my top 4, and, straight fellas, they would make a great gifts for chicks.

Next up I'll have a more serious look at the men's category of Consumer Choice and its four nominees. Well, three, considering my package didn't contain one of the samples! And I gave it an automatic 0! Stick around and find out which one didn't show up for the party, and what my vote went to.

Peace Out

Re-View Re-MIIIIIIIX KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL M***********!!!!!!!: Gravity by Coty

Ahh... 1992
Clinton got elected.
Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, and Vanessa Williams topped the charts.
And grand perfumier and fragrance house Coty launched Gravity for men.

Gravity by Coty

1992

The Goods

Gravity still has an active fanbase 21 years in the future, but like many specific fragrances breaking free from the ordinary it has its detractors. As far as I'm concerned, Gravity deserves a place in honorable fragrance history along with the greats. Why? It's hard to explain. You had to be there. Much in the way the few insiders from back in the day knew the real Kurt Cobain in his Seattle halcyon days before Nirvana's success, you had to be there.

With a basic dying-days-of-the-yuppie note combination of leather and white pepper creating the scent foundation, Gravity doesn't feel like anything special upon first sampling. The finish and middle notes however, create a deceptively complex foreshadowing of the fragrance future. Now, before you get annoyed and shake your head, I do ramble on about the 1990s in fragrance to an excessive degree. But you had to be there. Let's go back.

Gravity was the very first fragrance I owned (I still have it on my collection shelf), which was given as a gift to me at all of age 6 or 7 to mark some occasion in which I was supposed to appear formally. (A lot of pressure for a kid in the relatively middle of nowhere). Mind you, as a FANCY boy, I was no stranger to the concept of scents. In fact, as a toddler I sniffed and smelled everything to the point of looking like an adorable, precious crack baby getting his fix. This desire to smell things that smelled good was so strong I used various soap items as toys, especially the smaller bars halfway between a normal bath bar and a hotel sized soap, along with real toys because I preferred everything smell just so. In light of this Gravity didn't seem like anything unexpected. What made it a momentous occasion for me, however, was that this this was supposed to be something that I owned outright, as opposed to the barfening array of early to mid 20th century concoctions like Old Spice, English Leather, and any number of colorful potions and flankers put out by our lovely local Avon lady that various relatives on my mom's side had worn over the years. I didn't like any of them, really. If anything I was apathetic. But when I first smelled Gravity everything in my little head exploded. The nuances screamed time that moved forward, rather than time that stood still.

Argent's Fragrance Theatre

This new review feature will be the monologue or dialogue of a character I imagine who would use the particular fragrance in review, and it would be his favorite. Let the joyful thespanism and comedy commence! *Ahem*

"Hey! Stop looking at me. I don't know what the big idea is but you're making me feel really uncomfortable. No. I don't have it. I'll try to get it. Yeah yeah. The copier sucks. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I said maybe OK? Maybe. Uh-huh. Yeah. They're calling it Windows 95. Isn't that stupid? Okay. Yeah. No. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man, super funny. NOT! I'm out."

Conclusion

While Gravity can be on the light lasting side and have the elements of a basic all-purpose fragrance, its subtleties defined, for me anyways, the before and the after of fragrance. The harmony of the classic masculine aromas and the sweet, sharp ornamental notes really put it at the forefront of the style of its time.

Rank It Up!

5 of 7 Sprays

Saturday Mini-Post April 27th. Fuck Yeah Life

It's the early afternoon and I'm about to head out for a minimal impact Saturday. Usually you can find me primping or reading the news or making a killer breakfast (or lunch if it's late enough) on Saturday mornings. I sleep in until about 10 and don't finish my chill until around 1 or 2 pm. The place where I reside is a bizarre contradiction of time and place in every sense; it's not quite the middle of nowhere and it's not quite somewhere big, it's not the backwoods, suburbs, or an urban center by any means, but it has elements of all three. That's the product of what you get for living in a place that changed the center of town 3 times in 150 years and is plunked right in the middle of Alaska's version of the American car-transportation-loving rat race.  It's obvious that the sense of place is important in every aspect of your life and living in a place with multiple personality disorder leaves you with an uneasy, uncomfortable worldly sense.

I just finished throwing some threads in the laundry and I'm going to head out for coffee. Wearing a dorky tattoo t-shirt I'm not up to do much impressing looks-wise, I'm only out to a local joint down the road. I've got some Spicebomb by Viktor and Rolf sprayed on and that's what is summing up my manner. It's new and fresh but it's relaxed and kinda hunky, if you will. Like I said, not trying to impress, but sometimes I get wrapped up and try to impress myself.

After coffee, not sure, I might engage in a couple of ink drawings. Working on new tattoo ideas and I'm also trying to create some grungey, post-modern calligraphy posters.

What am I going to get to drink?

A Very Post-Moden Post-Hiatus

Ever get the feeling that something is missing from your life? For me, it's my beloved Whiff blog. Albeit with a minimal audience and semi-diarist in its format, the Whiff brings me much joy. Thanks to the seasonality of projects in my current classic American day job, the winter is challenging for me to devote time to exploring other ventures. Thankfully spring is coming to my piece of the planet and I'm able to take in the warmer temperatures while getting back to some good old fashioned post-writing, and with some clever jockeying and calendar scrutinizing I can finally establish a year-round schedule.

My explorations into fragrance have barely begun and I'm anticipating what the future holds. I last left off at the end of summer 2012, and now is as good a time as any to rev the engines for another trip. A good burst of excitement to reinvent my wheel is that the Fragrance Foundation Awards (apparently they don't want to be called the FiFi awards anymore, something I object to just for the sake of brevity if nothing else, including the FiFis being fairly lesser known in general fashion to begin with) are coming June 12th.

I am excited that the Fragrance Foundation has created Consumers Choice categories for 2013 as part of its rebranding efforts which include a fashionable logo and media style. The two awards are part of a national ad campaign, and I hope that I am among the lucky ones who signed up early enough to receive a sample package. My only concern is that the two Consumer Choice awards have entries that are quite a different lineup from the finalists for the Fragrance of the Year awards in the various categories (women's luxe, men's luxe, women's nouveau niche, etc.) and the two packaging categories. People who become more interested in the foundation and study of fragrance via the awards might find it confusing that what is up for popular vote isn't necessarily the palate of what the foundation experts consider to be most influential that year.

From the roughly 10 shortlisted nominees in each category, the foundation selected 4 to 6 finalists in each category and they were revealed at a breakfest event on April 19th. The format of having a separate reception which incorporates all of the shortlisted houses and designers greatly appeals to my ideal of sharing the fragrance experience in a broad scale so that more designers, especially niche or indie designers who may not necessarily make the finalists' cut, have a chance to experience the community of fragrance one-on-one and share ideas. I'm not into the popular "artistic community" ethos, but there is definitely an element in that realm which fragrance needs to flourish.

But I digress. Since I am an average guy, and I tend to focus on guy things despite my occasional flights of feminine fancy, I will concentrate yet again on the men's awards. But don't think the awards is all I'm about when it comes to fragrance, I have a whole smattering of facts and trends I'm prepping to postulate for the year to come.


What's next for the Whiff?

- What's new in my collection, or "How I survived the 2012-2013 winter"

- You'll get an in-depth look at my assessment over the Consumer's Choice awards AND I'll reveal my votes.

- In-depth reviews of the critical reception for the FiFi... er..... Fragrance Foundation Award finalists.

- MetaBlind: You pick what I buy for my collection. Sometimes I can't decide, and I'd love to use some of my budget to see what the masses think I should get into blind.

- The long-awaited scent in food vs. scent in perfumery counterpoint analytical essay fun-fest.


Thanks to the one or two people who have casually glanced at the temporarily suspended in animation treatise on scent that is the Whiff and I am eagerly looking forward to more.

- Argent