Odeur 71 (2000)
by Comme des Garçons

If Odeur 53 was a comfort scent of sitting in a garden of pixelized leaves and sunshine that's right next to a pool of soapy water that is filled with sentient robotic fish while being blown on the face by gusts of sweet refrigerated air --

...then Odeur 71 would be like standing alone, being the only human in a desolate robotic landscape with miles and miles of plastic-covered buildings that block out the sky. In the distance, you also see some robots burning pieces of rubber and other various synthetic material. They are there, but they make no sound. Everything is silent -- and the dust of the barren synthetic terrain are blown onto your face.

Bottle-worthy? Well, this is something I wouldn't want to smell like -- so I'd say no. It gives me a headache when overapplied.

Quite abstract and very challenging. It took me a long while to train my nose to smell the accords presented in Odeur 71 but I still am not sure of them. I sort of get the metal and office-aroma notes. I don’t find anything that smells like dust on a hot light bulb, or photocopier toner (both those odors are too sharp for anything I smell in this fragrance). No incense, but lots of artificially smelling wood in the base. I also get that accord that PM describes so well – grilled sausage (pork) with shampoo (unscented) gravy. I can wear Odeur 71 and even understand it a little, but I don’t think I will ever be able to like it very much. It’s not the kind of scent that will grow on me.

This is an "outsider" perfume. Lonely, melancholy, nostalgic, cynical and self-searching. Wear it for your own enjoyment and not for others. The notes don't evolve over time, but depending on your state of mind evoke bizarre unconcious associations. A perfume homage to the music of Ligeti, Stockhausen, Xenakis... Fantastic!!!

Well, it *is* different, we can give it that. My question always about Comme des Garcons is, if I didn't know what was going on here would my opinion of it change? There is something detatched and oddly lonely about this. It's like walking in an industrial landscape or a sterile corporate megaplex in the middle of nowhere, picking up some of the grass coming from the riding lawnmower that is making the only sound in the pristinely vacant scene.

Odeur 71 is the sweetness we all smell when we smell things we feel silly about smelling. The inside of a glossy brochure, the funny sweet smell of duct tape, the smell of a hot computer or TV and their warm plastic and whirring inner parts. This is funny... I was thinking pen ink and looked up to see, and sure enough, it was in the listed ingredients! If I could try to "get in there" and figure out what natural ingredients are creating this effect, I'd assume something grassy, something rubbery, something lightly smokey (especially in the opening moments), something like light clean soil. But the end result really is "office" or "vacant modern space", totally gray, clean, like the standard plastics used to cover office equipment, and I don't even want to aesthetically strip it of its vision by trying to figure that out.

A lot of things that aren't typically fragrant have a smell, and we know those smells are there, and Comme des Garcons has bottled many of them into a fascinating fragrance that seems more appropriate for study than for wear. Of course that's up to the individual as it is certainly far less repellent than many of the more standard fragrance offerings available today from large designer houses in department stores. Thumbs up for uniqueness and artistic integrity.

First tried this frag on march 07, the 15ml's one. The lady on the counter didnt want to spray it, so I only sniff the sprayhead. I dont like it because the only things I can detect was only burnt rubber. Yesterday I went to mall near to my house n found a small perfume shop, I was very supprised that they have Odeur 71 200 ml since this perfume is very hard-to-find in my country, I've got a one full spray in my arm. The opening's still a burnt rubber but after 5 minutes it transformed into something transparent-fresh-woody fragrance, a really well blended one. My wife also like it very much. My body chemistry never compromise with any fresh kind of frag, but this one is the first fresh frag that I can use. I also found that this is very complex, you can almost find anything inside.

GREAT ! No hesitation if you want to smell "different " : this is definitely an anti perfume and you won't smell like if you had used an eau de toilette... You will smell (it is very difficult to describe 'cose this frag is very abstract) "fresh" and "clean" but also... dusty ! I didn't like it at all when I first sprayed it (smells too much like a burnt tire ; luckily this frag goes away pretty fast) but 1 hour after, when it has warmed and developped... !