Comme des Garcons Series 6 Synthetic: Garage

after I dragged, this july 2011, my brother (the nose) & my hong kong girlfriend to the CdG boutique in a deserted sunday morning (thank you nico) in chelsea, under a 40 degrees killing NY sun, the tunnel entrance of the boutique was a warp velocity transporter (thank you scotty) to another place & another time (thank you brian ferry) . fresh, clean & somber, to me CdG recalls my '80s infatuation with japanese designers. yoji yamamoto, kansai yamamoto, issey miyake, kenzo & CdG's rei kawakubo. and it means paris in the '80s: place de victoire, rue etienne marcel, rue de grenelle & place des vosges. I lost track of the jap bunch in the '90s. now in 2011 I went back to search for the special scent of these lost years. CdG in the new millennium became very niche & made more fragrances than anyone can bear. unfortunately the synthetic series 6 is discontinued even in the chelsea flagship store. but, after spritzing a little wonderwood (wow! CdG 2 men without the candle, another wow!), a little dover st (splendid), some odeur 71 (oh disappointment!) I asked to a really beautiful jap girl in synthesis (thank you david bowie) if she had some series 6 hidden in her sleeve (thank you mick jagger). she radiated the most gorgeous smile (I don’t know why: perhaps series 6 is her favorite or perhaps she was so glad to get rid of the leftovers, or perhaps she thought I was so hip it hurts). she asked me to wait a little, went in the very hidden bowels of the store & returned carrying tar, skai & garage, telling that she had only 6 left of them. oh joy! I spritzed skai on my brother's wrist & he made something with his nose,I do not know how to tell in english, obviously in utter contempt; I spritzed tar on my HK girlfriend & she tried to slice me with her katana like I was a ripe melon. so I was the only skin left to test garage. I must say that even if tar's a flawed experiment I liked it & at that point my nose was too tired to feel skai, that is really faint & subltle. but garage grabbed me to my throat & it was instantly ME. this is not a fragrance review, ít's a mood description. & I will quote my HK girlfriend words upon smelling garage on my inner elbow. “I have a vision of you licking a pierced navel...” & I thought: “... of a sweaty hunk's six packs abs covered in motor grease...". after that there were no more words left to say. garage was chosen & I left the store with one more bag on my shoulder that really improved my shopping experience. gorgeous! p.s everybody thinks that this summer I lost my mind (or better my nose) because my july in NY scented of CdG garage, OdP chaman’s party & lelabo patchouli 24. I mean, each time I moved in the still, african-hot air around me, there was always someone sniffing around to see were the fire was, or were the road accident, with burning car's tires had happened. perhaps it was simply the hot weather melting the street tar. NY at its kinkyest...

If the word "garage" brings to your mind of Harley Davidsons, trucks, bycicles, cars or whatever you may have inside your garage, this is NOT for you. Comme Des Garcons rendition of the garage it's definitely more futuristic than a post-seventies motorcycle rider with a long beard and a leather jacket working on his bike. This is more the smell of a maintanance area where they repair and polish aseptic white androids designated as supportive doctors on an interstellar base. Yes, it smells of grease, oil, traces of kerosene, rubber and various lubricants but it's overall clean, extremly bright and...plasticky. It's a tidy garage, almost aseptic, with metal walls and a clean white floor illuminated by neon lights. Wearable? Probably not as much as the other fragrances in the Synthetic Series yet incredibly compelling and futuristic. More an odour than a proper body fragrance but nonetheless worth experiencing for its unquestionable uniqueness. Rating: 7.5/10

Okay, this is an interesting avant garde frag! I bought a sample of this, because I love Fahrenheit, which I think smells like my childhood garage with the gasoline driven lawn mover and dusty memories of artefacts. CDG Garage is a different smelling garage though. No similarities with Fahrenheit or the garage from my childhood home, except for the raw style. But I think it's a very authentic garage smell, from other garages, that I have been in. Heavy on the metal, raw material scent. Hard stuff. I get plastic, grinded iron, and that kind of stuff. Sounds cheap, but it smells expensive, because it appears authentic. Probably the least sweet fragrance, I have ever come across.

transfixed from the moment I encountered it. if you love the smell of the auto parts store but wish it had more of a sensual yet unsettling hotel room feel, then you will be too. the chemical crispness reminds delightfully of something surgical and sterilized but the organic notes are clear and nostalgic to counter. a little bit like witch hazel. categorizing it as significantly masculine is an overreach, but when is that not with fragrances? it's the perfect scent for every season.

Searching this and "tar" from same series for ages now. Had samples of both and adore them. Desperately needed!