There’s a “High” Episcopalian church in midtown Manhattan fondly known as “Smoky Mary’s” – and sometimes referred to as “Bells and Smells,” pet names that have been given for the abundance of incense burned up and down the nave.
Incense so heavy as to follow you home in the fibers of your clothing – and ultimately into sleep, where you dream of priests in cassocks swinging thuribles on chains above your bed.
Rei Kawakubo, founder of the Tokyo-based, avant-garde fashion house Comme des Garçons (French for “like the boys”) has gone on record as saying that she’s never been overly fond of fragrances – and yet Comme des Garçons has become known for a line of fragrances as esoteric and conceptual as the clothing.
Comme des Garçons’ fragrance line is not for the shy or faint of heart, which makes it perfect for its edgy corps of cultish devotées (we have one artist friend who has religiously worn the first Comme des Garçons fragrance ever since its launch in 1994).
These are fragrances that flaunt unconventionality with blends meant to evoke concepts such as ink or gas or tar – albeit with a kind of compulsive attraction. (Remember how you used to love to fill up your car – and the smell of gas on your hands?)
© Comme des Garcons / Artek
Standard derives from the collaborations that Comme des Garçons has done with similarly idiosyncratic and visionary individuals and companies (Monocle magazine, for example, or fashion muse Daphne Guinness). Working with Artek, the Finnish furniture company founded in 1935 by architect Alvar Aalto (whose covetable chairs and stools are universally recognized), Comme des Garçons Standard was launched at London’s Dover Street Market in 2009 to commemorate Artek’s 75th anniversary.
Given Aalto’s renowned work with laminated bent-plywood furniture, it’s no surprise that the fragrance created in his honor (by Comme des Garçons in-house perfumer, Christian Astuguevieille) is heavily woody – particularly with cedar.
With top notes comprised of fennel, ginger, lemon, and cedarwood, Standard diffuses into a dry-down that is a softer version of that incense-laden thurible. Mass has ended, but you’ve lingered in the high choir. You might even have fallen asleep on a pew cushion, breathing in the musky and slightly chilled air of a cathedral that’s been standing for centuries.
Packaged in a matte gray bottle with silver cap, Standard’s visual aesthetics are completely complementary to Aalto’s work and philosophy – and its mesmerizing evocation of high church and high school wood shop is breathtakingly brilliant.
