Odeur 71 (2000)
by Comme des Garçons

Like Odeur 53, this is very ozonic atmospheric and light but 71 is more edgy, more electronic. Drys down to something slightly fern like. Very modern, cool, avante. As a guy, I prefer this over 53. Ultimately I chose to get a decant of Cumming instead. Additionally, Nostalgia by Santa Maria Novella has a similar electronic chemical opening, but it's all about fresh leather which I prefer. If you want to really freak people out, wear both!

The irony here is delicious, inasmuch as the scent pyramid, which reads like science fiction, is a model of accuracy: Odeur 71’s blend of incense, laundry detergent musk, and woody amber smells a lot like the contents of a desk drawer. Which is great if smelling like office supplies is your idea of provocative. This composition was obviously meant to be more subversive than it seems today, and to appreciate Odeur 71 fully one needs to consider the historical context of its release, before its currency was cheapened by scads of pretentious niche offerings whose “industrial” cast bears more resemblance to household chemicals than perfumes.

Still, this entire industrial chic fragrance style is inherently flawed. Scents like Odeur 71 mean to confound our idea of “perfume” through their rejection of olfactory naturalism and their explicitly chemical flavor. The problem is that chemical notes like Odeur 71’s “dust on a hot light bulb” and “photocopier toner” so completely pervade our everyday environment that they smell ordinary. Perhaps as much so as “conventional” perfume notes like rose and jasmine – never mind more exotic or pungent materials like davana, oudh, castoreum, or civet. Once past the initial shock of smelling glass cleaner, ink, or wet paint in a perfume, wearing Odeur 71 and its ilk can get dull fast. After all, how much depth or mystery is there in 409 or Windex? Neither as repulsive nor exciting as it might have been, and arguably an aesthetic dead-end.

Quite boring scent, but sniff of this scent have made me nauseated. And I remained dizzy for an hour. It remains mystery that why they bothered to make this scent at all.

This review is based on a couple of wearings from a sample, a fact that I feel I have to mention right off the bat because I'm afraid I just don't "get" this scent. The descriptions I see here and on other fragrance review boards are hard to reconcile with what I'm actually smelling.

I don't get any burned rubber, rack-and-pinion assemblies, giant robots, atmospheric molecular essences, moon landers, etc. out of this. To me it smells like 1) soap, and 2) a sort of geometric average of many other fragrances, kind of like the residual generic perfumey smell of a department store fragrance counter. The closest I can come to anyone else on this is that it does indeed smell something like a freshly printed glossy brochure. Had I not read the marketing materials and commentary, I would never in a million years have guessed that this fragrance would be considered outrageous or innovative.

It does succeed pretty well at avoiding any overtly identifiable accords. Evidently, this creates something of a Rorschach-like void into which perfumistas can project their own random synaptic activity. :-)

From a technical perspective, it's actually pretty good. It has just the right amount of sillage/projection. It's present enough for you to enjoy and to give out hints to people around you, but it's unlikely to offend anyone. It does smell pleasant, although it's hard to imagine anyone craving this scent (but I guess there are quite a few of you out there!).

Odeur 71 continues to pique my curiosity, so I will continue trying it. We'll see if it grows on me.

Candle wax falling onto an electric heater that has been switched on for the first time since summer, a tube station in London with a whiff of incense. The initial synthetic cocktail gives way to something very wearable with a trace of something a little odd.

Here's my pretentious review when I was a n00b:

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.


Here's my review today:

Metallic and woody. Okay, but boring. Pass!