French niche line Etat Libre d’Orange has launched I Am Trash / Les Fleurs du Déchet, a new fragrance developed in collaboration with the marketing and communications company Ogilvy Paris.*
We believe that a new post-religious “jihad” is approaching, coming from an often disillusioned and polluting West, and echoing a new animistic era. Those who have committed crimes against the environment are repenting, and democracies are acknowledging nature as the sacred focal point, meant to be shared. The beliefs of the primitive and ancient tribes are back, and demand our full allegiance. This perfume will carry a universal message: that which is dirty must reflect the beautiful,
“…and wash me clean of the bluish wine stains and the splashes of vomit,
Carrying away both rudder and anchor.” (Arthur Rimbaud, The Drunken Boat.)
Les Fleurs du Déchet represents a passage to the adulthood of Sécrétions Magnifiques. It is a counter-revolution for Etat Libre d’Orange, still noisy and disruptive, but ultimately functional. Givaudan, Ogilvy and Etat Libre d’Orange have created a three-fold company in the service of Mother Nature, to offer her a bouquet of forgiveness and let everyone know – loudly and quickly – that soon it will be too late.
— Etienne de Swardt.
***
A joint creation between provocative label Etat Libre d’Orange and Ogilvy Paris Agency, I Am Trash Les Fleurs du Déchet perfume is a reflection on the waste that luxury represents. With notes of mouldy fruit and earthworms on a base of apple, juicy citrus, jammy rose and sweet strawberries, the scent leaves a warm, comforting soapy smell lingering on the skin. A perfume as daring, as the concept behind it.
I Am Trash / Les Fleurs du Déchet was developed by perfumer Daniela Andrier. Additional notes include bitter orange, rose, cedar, sandalore, akigalawood and iso e super.
Etat Libre d’Orange I Am Trash / Les Fleurs du Déchet is available in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum.
(first quote via etatlibredorange, second quote via selfridges)
* If you missed it, see the I Am Trash video released earlier this year.
As much as I enjoy Amourette, this one smells trashy to me!
Smells trashy as in actually smells like trash?
An ad agency decrying waste — that’s pretty funny.
It’s sort of funny on multiple levels, if the cure for ‘a disillusioned and polluting West’ is another perfume.
The copy makes me super mad. “Jihad” is a powerful word for a reason; you don’t get to coopt it for your fake philosophical marketing copy.
I had a negative reaction to their use of that word, too. Especially since there’s a high incidence of Islamophobia in France.
i agree with you Elisa – the islamophobic reception context makes the appropriation of jihad – whose many contextual definitions islamophobia erases – particularly troubling
But that’s exactly what ELdO likes to do — piss people off. I think it is part of what convinces people (maybe including them) that they are edgy and provocative.
awful awful copy. and can i say that literally the east is way more polluting than the west?
I love the French name!
It’s a great name, much better than the english name.
This offends me on so many levels. We have sunk to a new low.
I am not offended. It’s pretty hard for me to work up to “offended” with perfume, and especially when I know that’s exactly what is intended. And I am not convinced there are any new lows to sink to.
Not sure whether I’m offended — though that may be the correct term — and co-opting some things that people really do care about for purely mercantile purposes is hardly unprecedented, but I will go out of my way never to sniff one of their products again, even out of mere curiosity.
I am not arguing that you should sniff one, just arguing that they’ve been going out of their way to “dismay and disrupt” since they started in 2006 and I don’t see all that much difference between this one and the initial offerings. People have been expressing their dismay — or delight — here since we started announcing their fragrances.
To me the bigger problem is that apparently it smells like apples and strawberries and clean skin — and that’s how it often works out with Etat Libre d’Orange. You get all worked up over the description, and then the fragrance is just no big deal.
Except Secretions Magnifiques, which is pretty darned unpleasant.
I didn’t plan to comment until I saw this your reply, Robin. So, I just want to say “for the record,” that I’ve been boycotting ELdO’s perfumes for years because of their philosophy. Yes, nothing new. I’m just glad that this time they “got to” more people: maybe one day the’ll run out of those who shares their attitude (or doesn’t care) and won’t be able to sell enough.
Heck, I’m just adding them to the list of products I prefer to avoid for various reasons. I doubt they’ll miss me (or I them).
Voting with your dollars is absolutely the way to go, and hope I wasn’t implying nobody should care if they are offended by ELdO — I was just saying that the PR for this one didn’t strike me as any more offensive than that for some of their other fragrances.
Although really, they don’t offend me, I just find their efforts to be offensive sort of juvenile. I suppose here you have a few added bonuses, but I am going to assume consumers will not be fooled into thinking this fragrance is not harmful to the environment (pretty much all fragrances are harmful to the environment), and that anybody offended by the use of the word jihad is probably going to find other things to be offended by if they go looking around at ELdO’s past.
Tom Ford offends me way more than ELdO — there, you have juvenile PLUS fragrances that aren’t all that different from anything else PLUS ridiculous prices.
Anyway, everybody should vote with their dollars, always!
And I will chime in merely to say that SM smells glorious on my skin. Before I or anyone else knew what it was I was wearing
a sample of it for several days and all my family members concurred that it smelled amazing on me…like a muted version of New West for Women. The friend who gifted it to me intentionally did not tell me what it was. Which goes to show how preconceived notions can alter our sense of smell.
I would agree with your last sentence! Grain de Musc has a good piece on ELDO, that you might want to read: http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/2011/05/mechanics-of-internal-fluids-is-beauty.html
This is in reply to Chocolatemarzipan, sorry got posted slightly off where I wanted it to be.
thanks austenfan! I must have been a man in another life because to me or at least on my skin it reads as an ocean/marine scent with a touch of milk. I also had my daughters put it on their skin. One said it smelled like basil to her..she said it was very herbal and she liked it. The other one said it smelled of a baby and a bit metallic..too metallic for her taste. She did not hate it but did not like it either. Kevin said in his review that men perceive it differently from women..they get more of the ocean vibe which is exactly what I get….and just so you know, Rien wears like a skin scent on me!
I adore Rien! One of my most contemplative perfumes.
Oh, I love this on so many levels! I just wish I loved more of their fragrances. Anybody, individual or corporation, that can get people riled up is my kind of people. Apathy is the enemy! I don’t have to agree (or disagree) with the speicifics, but I whole heartedly support the right to say it.
ELDO is always good for a laugh, and I wholeheartedly support laughter.
Agreed Deva. Laughing is the best????
I hope there are better antidotes for apathy than getting people ‘riled up.’ It seems to have become a national pastime.
A perfume that leaves a warm, comforting, soapy smell AND is daring at the same time – interesting.
The ad copy doesn’t offend me, it just doesn’t really work – it reminds me of those SNL skits of drama clubs in high school, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPAtpAelwe4
Eh, I’ll smell it. I’ve found this line well made, but they’ve already been juvenile and confusing.
Coumarin! Please email me about the CdL split. I received the bottle and will he shipping out this week so need your address and payment please.
It’s pretsky 35 over at hot male
Ha, I just came over here to leave a note because I saw yours on the SOTD
Awww, thanks Robin ???? But, I hope Coumarin comes back to check…
Ah, I’m sorry! This weekend was rough and it totally slipped my mind. I emailed you as soon as I saw this though.
Ad copy is oftentimes absurd and unnecessary, but I’m certainly not offended. I agree with Robin that I find Tom Ford fragrances are named petulantly, absurdly overpriced, and mostly boring. That said, I would like to own a bottle of Tobacco Oud, but can’t bring myself to do it. So I vote with my dollars. To each their own, though!
Omg, this is so Derelict, the garbage collection from Zoolander
ELdO comes up with far more winners than losers. I ignore the copy and test every one of theirs I can. I say most are winners. Rien is still in original formulation and smelling fantastic. Secretions, Rossy de Palma, La Fin du Monde, Eloge du Traitre, Je Suis un Homme, and now Hermann A Mes Cotes Me Paraissait Une Ombre. Don’t let anger affect your better judgment!
The factory scent sample came packaged in a small protective box, inside a promotional 4″x4″ cardstock carrier inside a padded envelope. No irony there.
OMG.