A lemming for serious fans of Comme des Garçons: the new coffee-table book, Comme des Garçons Parfums 1994-2025, written by Dino Simonett. "Comme des Garçons Parfums is happy to celebrate its thirty years of excellent and progressive scents and design. The entire collection of pebbles, series, special editions and collaborations is presented here for the first time, together with the packaging and hilarious printed matter. Never the same twice, never looking back. From the still irresistible „Eau de Parfum“ (1994) to the futuristic eau oxygénée „Odeur 10“ (2024), the wild bunch is united in a thick book with large images, printed in brilliant colours on thick paper: Comme pour les enfants, de grandes enfants comme nous!" €125 for the threadbound paperback directly from the publisher, Simonett & Baer.
A faint note of horse piss
Discovering that entrepreneur Estée Lauder once rejected an entire scent because she detected a faint note of horse piss was not on my bingo card for 2024. But according to author Michael Edwards—who highlights this moment in his latest book, American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrances—the colorful anecdote helps Lauder seem more relatable to those of us who know her exclusively as beauty royalty.
— Read more in American Legends Reveals the Backstories Behind Some of Your Favorite Scents at Harper's Bazaar. (And you can see a partial list of the fragrances covered by the book here.)
It’s an interesting question. American fragrances, when you smell them close up, they’re not always that pretty, but in the air they resonate. That’s the American spirit. Estée Lauder believed that women expect American fragrances to start the way they end. She had little patience with this idea of top notes, of fragrances changing over time: It has to be straight, she believed. It has to be direct.
— Michael Edwards on the difference between American and French perfumes. Read more in Spotlight: Michael Edwards, Debuts American Legends at Fragrance Foundation Accords.
“To the French, perfume is liquid art; to the Italians, liquid style; to the Americans, liquid money,” Edwards said.
— Read more in A Journey Through American Fragrance with Michael Edwards at FIT Newsroom.
The daily lemming
A special issue of Nez in association with IFRA: We Love Fragrances. "Fragrance is an essential part of our lives. Its many perspectives – cultural, economic, social and emotional, as well as agricultural, industrial and technological – are explored in this book, showing just how much fragrance is an element that links us together.[...] We Love Fragrances brings together numerous testimonials and gives voice to all players in the value chain, from growers, suppliers of natural and synthetic raw materials, creators and producers to researchers, engineers and chemists... A book to discover and rediscover fragrance in all its different facets and understand its present and future challenges. 160 pages for $55 at Luckyscent.
Louis Vuitton A Perfume Atlas ~ new perfume book
Thames & Hudson will publish the English version of Louis Vuitton: A Perfume Atlas in June (the French version launches this month).
A journey for the senses across multiple continents, Louis Vuitton: A Perfume Atlas traces the origins of the precious essences that help create Louis Vuitton’s exclusive perfumes…
American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrances by Michael Edwards ~ new perfume book
Michael Edwards, the author of Perfume Legends: French feminine fragrances (and the updated version, Perfume Legends II), will publish American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrances later this year. I have no official details other than an announcement of a book signing in April and am posting this now just because I am excited about it. Perfumes I can see on the cover (and do comment if you know the bottles I am missing): Elizabeth Arden Blue Grass, Old Spice, (?) Evyan White Shoulders, Estee Lauder Youth Dew, Aramis, Brut, Norell, Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Charlie, Estee Lauder Private Collection, Halston, (?) Oscar by Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren Polo, Estee Lauder White Linen, Giorgio, Estee Lauder Beautiful, Calvin Klein Obsession, Calvin Klein Eternity, (is that Elizabeth Arden Red Door?), Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, Donna Karan Cashmere Mist, CK One, Demeter Dirt, Bond no. 9 Chinatown, something by Le Labo.
Update: Here is the description from the Fragrances of the World website...
American Legends is the long-awaited companion to Perfume Legends, the cult book in which French perfumers spoke openly for the first time about their work and the sources of their inspiration. “There is no book like it,” stated Edmond Roudnitska, the celebrated perfumer.
Now, in American Legends, Michael Edwards documents the evolution, the richness and the sheer originality of American fragrances from Elizabeth Arden’s Blue Grass (1934) to Le Labo’s Santal 33 (2011). The result is living history, told through the words of the creators behind forty legendary American perfumes.
The book covers 40 fragrances, so more than the 25 shown on the cover. The Hardcover is $150 USD, if you pre-order you get a 20% discount (I believe that offer is good through the end of July 2024).