Moss Breches (2007)
by Tom Ford

Moss Breches, initially, comes across as an old-fashioned smelling chypre – with herbal spicy accords that slap you around the face, like an irate father sporting a string vest, golden medallion and an unkempt moustache. The drydown, however, is almost a world away – with patchouli and vanilla being the main players by this stage.

I can certainly understand why some would appreciate this but it's not something I would bother investing in.

[Original submission date: 05 January 2009]

Fragrance notes (from TF site): woods, spices, beeswax absolute, clary sage, tarragon, rosemary, labdanum, patchouli, benzoin.
I'm in agreement with Vibert. I'm underwhelmed by this scent. I was expecting great herbal notes, a green experience. I call this a honeyed brown sort of scent. Ambery vanilla from the resins hit my nose from the get-go, and persisted throughout. I don't have a complaint against the patchouli. It is restrained, and adds an interesting tangy note to the rich scent. Ultimately, it is too ambery for me to endorse or enjoy. It is a luxurious scent, some would find it classy. My complaints are as follows: where is the moss, where are the herbal notes, where are the woods? It is a pleasant sort of scent, but not terribly interesting. The Breches in the title refers to a region of France. The moss in the title? Your guess is as good as mine.

A deep, rich spicy chypre with a hint of a "soap and water" accord. A great opening but goes into a spicy gourmand (as Vibert said) and dries down into a wan vanilla.

A deep, spicy and herbal impression slowly melts into something more animalic, resiny, and oriental; a strong allusion to chypre construction can't be missed in this scent. The whole seems particularly innovative in the weight of spice and herbals vis-à-vis the chypre theme. The total lack of florals in a chypre is quite striking, really. This is barely balanced at the tipping point, but its audacity gives it the edge it needs to pull off the stunt with panache.

Mean green sexy machine! A classic chypre, with a blast of tarragon and sage to open your sinuses at first. From there, it's all about the labdanum, spices (can't quite put my finger on them, though), patchouli and benzoin.

What comes to mind first and foremost for me is the old Givenchy Gentleman -- I get much of that with the patchouli-heavy drydown. Still, this has no civet that I can detect (unlike Gentleman) and a slightly more unisex dry-down.

Gorgeous "dark" green frag, but the price tag (as with the other Tom Fords in this line) is, for me, prohibitive. (A huge thumbs up, though!)

Moss? This is a spicy gourmand fragrance, not some walk in the woods. The first few minutes are excruciatingly sweet to my nose, as honeyed green hay notes ride on a huge wave of cinnamon to quash any of the forest floor accord I'd hoped for in this fragrance. With time the green notes recede, leaving cinnamon and honey on their own. The honey in Moss Breches is raw, pungent, and animalic, a bit like that in Serge Lutens's Miel de Bois, though far less potent.

As it dries down Moss Breches leaves a trail of soft woods and vanilla. A pretty exit, but disappointing if it's a chypre you're expecting. Taken as a whole, Moss Breches is far from revolutionary, and even a little bit dull. If it's a spicy oriental I'm after, I'll stick to Noir Epices, Eau Lente, or Cimabue, thank you.