Reviews of 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]

Moss Breches? It's an affectation for Tom Ford, the boy from Texas, to give his fragrances French names, but since everyone does it, it's also a little difficult to fault him for it. In English I guess this means moss gap or breach or possibly foothold. But maybe the moss in Texas has a different aroma because the scent bares no resemblance to moss in my world.

On first application, I get a strong whiff of the beeswax absolute - sweet and honeyed. After 15 minutes or so some of the spicyness appears although it doesn't smell to me like the herbal quality I would expect from sage, tarragon and rosemary but more like cinnamon and nutmeg. Later I get vanilla subdued by just a hint of patchouli.

This is a pleasant, wearable fragrance on me. But I save my thumbs up for the ones that really wow me.

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.

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.