After escaping Saks in Beverly Hills without the Antidote - still not arrived 
- I passed through Barney's to catch up on two releases I've missed: Comme des Garçons' Guerrilla 1 and Guerrilla 2.
Guerrilla 1 begins somewhat sharp and odd, like a strange spiced fruit scent. There's also a bit of that sharp, bright, somewhat metallic smell from Comme des Garçons 2 (and now Terre d'Hermès). It's got that crazy, we're-being-weird quality that's characteristic Comme des Garçons. But right beneath, it's clearly fruity-floral. Guerrilla 2 is even weirder. It's burns the nose in a way I could not help but hold back the paper strip in surprise. The sales associate attributed it to the ginger, and perhaps that was it. But if so, it's the heavily spiced ginger of a Jamaican root beer. With a power line dropped in it. (It's probably the abundance of pepper - you really feel it here for once.) There's also something somewhat... raw in it. It's unpleasant. For a fan of those uncomfortable, thought-provoking Comme des Garçons scents, this is a welcome return to form. For a brief moment. As shocked as I was, I was pleased. Guerrilla 1 was infinitely more "wearable," but Guerrilla 2 was more traditionally "Comme des Garçons."
I held onto the two strips to see how they would progress, but, sadly, by the time I was in front of Burberry a block away, I couldn't tell one from the other. They had both become bland, pleasant, rather - for loss of a better term - pretty fruity-florals. I recalled what I wrote upon reading the note lists the first time, that they would either be really unique, intriguing scents or end up smelling like Coco Mademoiselle. And, well, they kind of smelled like a lighter version of Coco Mademoiselle. Not that that's a bad thing, but that's not something I'd really expect from the company that put out Comme des Garçons 2, the Incense series, the brilliant Synthetic series, Odeurs 53 and 71...
But then I think about Comme des Garçons 2 Man, a terribly commercial scent that is too eerily similar to Gucci pour Homme, which predated it by around a year. And then there's the whole Series 7: Sweet, a sad exercise in regurgitating gourmands and orientals in tiny quantities, with low complexities and concentrations, and at high prices. (At both ScentBar and Barney's, the sales associates have noted the poor reception Series 7 has received from the public.) And now we have the Guerrillas, fragrances meant to represent the spirit of the temporary stores in offbeat locations in one-off cities not known for being fashion capitals. I find it strange that the perfect smells to embody this aesthetic are very pretty floriental scents that could easily also pass for the latest celebrity "pink" scent (shock effect top notes aside).
What has happened to Comme des Garçons? They used to be the ultimate in iconoclastic designer perfumery. And now... pretty pink perfume? (Albeit in a black bottle with seven other little fake bottles.) First Costume National sold out with Scent Gloss. Then Alexander McQueen followed. (Okay, he's part of the soulless Gucci Group. It was to be expected. But MyQueen? Who would have thought the mastermind of "Highland Rape" would ever have made that?) Chanel had been sliding for years, and Allure Sensuelle was just the final nail in its coffin. But Comme des Garçons? It seemed impossible this stubbornly individualistic company could ever become so crass to release scents like Series 7: Sweet or the Guerrilla line. But they have.
I always hold out hope whatever comes out next from Comme des Garçons will be a return to its gloriously weird and unique past. But it seems clear that they want these scents to make money - as Series 1: Leaves, Series 4: Cologne, and Series 5: Sherbet likely did not do - and they are only using their hard-earned reputation to sell these rather unspectacular scents now.
Sadly, Etro - the one design house whose fragrance aesthetic rivaled Comme des Garçons' in eccentricity - has announced they are breaking with their resolutely unisex fragrance policy and making gendered fragrances with their newest release, Dianthus. I hope this does not begin a new era of mediocrity for that excellent house as well...
- I passed through Barney's to catch up on two releases I've missed: Comme des Garçons' Guerrilla 1 and Guerrilla 2.Guerrilla 1 begins somewhat sharp and odd, like a strange spiced fruit scent. There's also a bit of that sharp, bright, somewhat metallic smell from Comme des Garçons 2 (and now Terre d'Hermès). It's got that crazy, we're-being-weird quality that's characteristic Comme des Garçons. But right beneath, it's clearly fruity-floral. Guerrilla 2 is even weirder. It's burns the nose in a way I could not help but hold back the paper strip in surprise. The sales associate attributed it to the ginger, and perhaps that was it. But if so, it's the heavily spiced ginger of a Jamaican root beer. With a power line dropped in it. (It's probably the abundance of pepper - you really feel it here for once.) There's also something somewhat... raw in it. It's unpleasant. For a fan of those uncomfortable, thought-provoking Comme des Garçons scents, this is a welcome return to form. For a brief moment. As shocked as I was, I was pleased. Guerrilla 1 was infinitely more "wearable," but Guerrilla 2 was more traditionally "Comme des Garçons."
I held onto the two strips to see how they would progress, but, sadly, by the time I was in front of Burberry a block away, I couldn't tell one from the other. They had both become bland, pleasant, rather - for loss of a better term - pretty fruity-florals. I recalled what I wrote upon reading the note lists the first time, that they would either be really unique, intriguing scents or end up smelling like Coco Mademoiselle. And, well, they kind of smelled like a lighter version of Coco Mademoiselle. Not that that's a bad thing, but that's not something I'd really expect from the company that put out Comme des Garçons 2, the Incense series, the brilliant Synthetic series, Odeurs 53 and 71...
But then I think about Comme des Garçons 2 Man, a terribly commercial scent that is too eerily similar to Gucci pour Homme, which predated it by around a year. And then there's the whole Series 7: Sweet, a sad exercise in regurgitating gourmands and orientals in tiny quantities, with low complexities and concentrations, and at high prices. (At both ScentBar and Barney's, the sales associates have noted the poor reception Series 7 has received from the public.) And now we have the Guerrillas, fragrances meant to represent the spirit of the temporary stores in offbeat locations in one-off cities not known for being fashion capitals. I find it strange that the perfect smells to embody this aesthetic are very pretty floriental scents that could easily also pass for the latest celebrity "pink" scent (shock effect top notes aside).
What has happened to Comme des Garçons? They used to be the ultimate in iconoclastic designer perfumery. And now... pretty pink perfume? (Albeit in a black bottle with seven other little fake bottles.) First Costume National sold out with Scent Gloss. Then Alexander McQueen followed. (Okay, he's part of the soulless Gucci Group. It was to be expected. But MyQueen? Who would have thought the mastermind of "Highland Rape" would ever have made that?) Chanel had been sliding for years, and Allure Sensuelle was just the final nail in its coffin. But Comme des Garçons? It seemed impossible this stubbornly individualistic company could ever become so crass to release scents like Series 7: Sweet or the Guerrilla line. But they have.
I always hold out hope whatever comes out next from Comme des Garçons will be a return to its gloriously weird and unique past. But it seems clear that they want these scents to make money - as Series 1: Leaves, Series 4: Cologne, and Series 5: Sherbet likely did not do - and they are only using their hard-earned reputation to sell these rather unspectacular scents now.
Sadly, Etro - the one design house whose fragrance aesthetic rivaled Comme des Garçons' in eccentricity - has announced they are breaking with their resolutely unisex fragrance policy and making gendered fragrances with their newest release, Dianthus. I hope this does not begin a new era of mediocrity for that excellent house as well...
