Yohji Yamamoto pour Homme (2004)
by Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji-style curve-ball.
Close transparent sandal-suede.
Sneaky strong skin song.

Starts out smelling like it has promise...nice burst of fresh citrus-then-poof, like magic it dissapears without a trace...this is quickly replaced by the ozony spice/wood combo that every mall fragrance seems to spend most of it's time doing...sorry, that's all I get...

This one is interesting because it mixes some dirtiness into the smell, giving it some character. The balance seems to work. I am not in love and planning for a full bottle, although I think I would enjoy wearing it periodically.

Not on the same scale as stablemate Yohji Homme (hereafter YH), Yohji Yamamoto (hereafter YYPH) displays the same ambiguous, ephemeral Japanese aesthetic. Whereas YH displays whatever you want to find in it, YYPH for me seems to live not on the skin as such but in a cloud that comes and goes and presages my arrival. And perhaps "pre-sages" is not a bad usage, as the progression of the scent is through a touch of Yuzu, through a long-lasting sage and ending with a touch of leather closer to the skin. Perhaps one of those scents that "wears you"? Not tactile in the same way that YH is; you won't be able to grasp this one through sniffing the skin. Perhaps more for reflective moods. I like it a lot, but not necessarily to buy. And I couldn't say for whom I would recommend YYPH. One last point: as the previous reviews note, this is an abysmal bit of naming. In fact, given that the male lines of YY appear to have been discontinued - AGAIN - there seems to have been a sustained failure in marketing respectively highly original (YYPH) and stone-cold-classic (YH) fragrances.

I bought a 10ml/0.34FlOz travel-sized bottle of this on ebay, advertised as "Yohji Homme" (to be fair to the guy, I don't think he realised, and has offered to exchange it) - so please note, this is NOT "Yohji Homme", as made famous in the Luca Turin review, this is "Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme" - a completely different kettle of fish, if you'll pardon the expression.

This is very linear, seems to stay on the same thing from start to finish, which is a vaguely boozy, watery aquatic nothing, really. It reminds me of a less interesting Baldessarini Del Mar Marbella (which in itself wasn't that interesting to begin with).

Vaguely pleasant/vaguely insipid, depending on your taste. Not one to revisit for me.

This bottle was imported by "Delphic HSE Solutions" to the UK, made in France. Not sure if it is a reformulation, as other reviews mention this was discontinued, but I think a fair few reviews of this I have seen elsewhere on the internet, as well as the Basenotes reviews of "Yohji Homme", may have had the two mixed up.

Understandable really, given the similarities of the names, and the bottles (something I think they may have changed now - a quick internet search shows this now comes in a rectangular-shaped bottle, whereas mine was the slim, tall "Yohji Homme" shaped one, but without "Yohji Homme" written at the top - photo submitted below).