I'm going off the beaten track today to review the Comme des Garçons Parfums 1994-2025 coffee table book by Dino Simonett.
First off, the book is very much a visual one. If you're expecting in-depth writing, any themes, analysis, or historical context, you'd best look elsewhere. What little text that's included amounts to ad copy and ad copy-level musings in a brief section of interviews snippets and very short essays.
I was also hoping that this book would include CdG's perfume ads, many of which are visually striking, unmistakably CdG, and a welcome departure from your typical half clothed model making bedroom eyes and posing beside a bottle. Consider the ads below.
While there are some ads included, as well as some interesting archival items like promotional flyers, posters, actual packaging, and so on, the book is a little thin on ad campaigns as well. Apparently CdG Parfums doesn't maintain any archives so Simonett had to root around for everything. This means that for most of the book you are primarily looking at high-res photos of actual bottles and bottle packaging.
As well, the details provided for each photo are inconsistent. Some scents come with a list of notes and even promotional copy and briefing notes while others just have the name, year of release, nose, and related designers.
Having said that, the book provides a comprehensive catalogue of CdG's scents, including some ancillary products like body wash. I thought I knew this house well, but there was a surprizing amount of scents that I had never seen before. Many of these were LEs, often of only 2,500 bottles. Have you ever heard of Jewel (1997), Merry Xmas (2003), or CdG 2 Glitter (2009)? Other fragrances that were new to me were collaborations that I would never have pegged as related to CdG such as (Hussein) Chalayan Airborne (2011), Stephen Jones Wisteria Hysteria (2014), and Grace by Grace Coddington (2016).
This is also a very beautiful book for print fetishists. The paper is really gorgeous, a thick matte with vibrant inks bound by layflat sewn binding. This binding is especially appreciated as it allows you to see larger images spread across two pages without the center dipping in toward the spine. The overall design of the book itself is very appealing and suiting to CdG's modern aesthetics.
Overall, this is a great reference text that includes a lot of deep cuts and is lovely to look at and hold, but is weak on every other front. At CA$200, it is really only for the CdG collector and completist.
If you liked this review, you can also read my review of CdG's original.
I'm reviewing another throwback piece today from Bordelle. While the brand's heyday during the heights of the strappy bondage trend and their iconic Angela dress has long since passed, it has continued to release unique and timeless pieces. The Alta line, offered in black, pale yellow and a silvery lavender, was recently released in 2024 and it's fairly easy to still find pieces floating around various retailers here and there.
I purchased the Alta soft cup bra in black to wear underneath racerback tops and the like; the straps at the back are each positioned roughly one centimeter to either side of the bra closure. Racerback bras often have a sporty vibe but Alta feels quite far from that, employing a delicate yet sturdy double-layered Swiss embroidered tulle that creates a beautiful cut-out effect. The fabric is further reinforced by an additional layer of tulle at the band. The hardware is gold-plated, as is the Bordelle standard.
In terms of fit, the bra uses a swan hook closure but is ultra-adjustable with two sliders at the band to ensure a perfect length. I will say however that this is definitely a design that favours smaller breasts. At a 32D/34C, the medium was the right size but not a perfect fit - the cleavage and support are great but the "gore" does not lie flat against my chest. This is pretty much the maximum volume I'd recommend for the medium.
I bought this piece on sale from Secrets For Your Sister. It retails for US$395 but I picked it up at a flash sale for roughly CA$200.
Happy new year, everyone! This is going to be a somewhat lengthy review for Deciem's unnamed Avestan fragrance, as the scent has quite the backstory.
I was so stoked when Deciem first announced the release of Avestan, a niche perfume line, back in 2018. As a Toronto resident, I'd watched Deciem's brand, The Ordinary, grow from its initial opening in the Distillery District into a cult following until its acquisition by Estee Lauder. You can still read about the planned release of Avestan online and if you click through the gallery in the link below, you can read a brief description of all the scents as well as see the original product designs.
There's candles and body products, too!
Shortly after all this press copy was released, the Avestan line was put on hold following Lauder's moves to seize control of Deciem and the death of its founder, Brandon Truaxe, in 2019, which was reported as an accidental fall.
However, later that year, in 2019, Deciem opened an Avestan store in London's Soho neighbourhood, selling one unnamed fragrance. Years later, this remains the only store where you can purchase the scent. In 2024, it opened another store in New York which only sells Svalbard, a name from the original line-up. (Though when I compared the current ingredients list, it does not match the 2019 label which suggests a reformulation without the guidance of Truaxe.)
My initial excitement over Avestan was not simply because I was interested in niche perfumes and The Ordinary. It was because so many of Avestan's scents were connected to the MENA region, where Truaxe hailed from as someone born in Tehran, Iran. Finally, I thought, instead of the Middle East viewed (smelled) through an orientalist European lens, we will have something in the mainstream perfume world that's different.
While Avestan's unnamed scent does not disclose a notes pyramid nor a place name, the Avestan website does show us where it is situated.
Here we see that the unnamed scent is located west of Beni Isguen, Algeria. The unnamed latitude and longitude coordinates correspond to Asni, Morocco, which recalls the original marketing for the Avestan line, and is attributed to Truaxe:
"[Avestan] began in the presence of things decidedly unworthy of much admiration in the world of aromas... Coated clay vats filled with argan oil, earthly walls of a typical village abode and the mud that had formed on my bare feet having crossed the river that bordered the township of Asni in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains... Avestan is the embodiment of this pleasing unfamiliarity. It is a deviation from familiar notes that move us through the past. It is an exploration of the untried. It is a journey to create new meaning through scents. It is a departure from lavender and rose to an unfulfilled journey of unfamiliar notes: clays, stems, saps, places and moments."
As such, it seems like the unnamed scent is perhaps not from the original line, but rather, an attempt to capture the origins of the entire Avestan house with subsequent roll-outs following the original releases (Svalbard, Roofs of Beni Isguen and Tent in Mahale were all names that had been announced in 2018).
Fast forward to 2025, Avestan's London location has proven to be wildly successful, with plans to roll out additional stores in other cities. Apparently the scent itself has also gone viral on TikTok. Hopefully an Avestan location will be arriving in Toronto - I'd love to see Esfahan sold in this city which is home to the second largest Iranian diaspora outside of LA.
For now, thanks to Kijiji, I managed to obtain a bottle of the unnamed Avestan, which I'll just call Avestan from this point onward. While I don't normally do blind buys, given its extremely limited access, I thought I'd seize the chance while I had it. It was well worth the risk.
Avestan is a wearable contemporary niche scent that's urban but warm with a hint of the gourmand.
The opening is unusual. There's a brief, flinty flare of bitter grapefruit or yuzu, a bristle of aromatic pepper, and an almost creamy, lactonic accord with an earthy character, otherwise, I'd think synthetic sandalwood. As such, despite the overall fresh and aromatic character of the opening, the scent is more reminiscent of a gently sweetened turmeric latte, with all the earthy and spicy heat that turmeric brings. This is what comes to my mind rather than the clay Truaxe describes, but having said that, I do understand why so many people smell clay in the opening.
The drydown swings more gourmand to me as its edges and the citrus fades, softening into something more simple, sweet and starchy or milky. And it's this sweetness and lactonic creaminess that makes Avestan more cuddly than conceptual, more familiar than aloof. Despite its unusual opening, it's quite a pleasant, approachable wear with mainstream appeal. It's also surprisingly long lasting with projection. One spray lasts a work day on me and I find it wafts towards my nose in the first few hours.
I understand the common comparisons between Avestan with Comme des Garcon's Blackpepper, which also pairs a hot spice with a gentle cream. Both use synthetics well and their fresh openings, as well as their contrasts in texture and temperature, rely on a similar concept and structure. However, they are not in any way dupes, there's really no mistaking one for the other and I'd say the Avestan is definitely weirder. It's also less "urban" in the way that many Comme des Garcons can be.
Overall, I think Avestan is a strong start for the house, one that delivers a good quality, unusual but accessible scent at an excellent price point. Especially when Comme des Garcons perfumes are now starting at CA$170-180, Avestan is a steal at under half that price £38/US$48 so roughly CA$70. The trick of course is its sole distribution point.
I hope the entire line is eventually released. I'm curious about the "copper" in Budapest, the oud-saffron combo of Esfahan sounds right up my alley, and I do wonder if A Tannery in Tuscany was designed to dupe Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather in a move reminiscent of the way The Ordinary trolled Drunk Elephant's marula oil.
Until then, I'll be keeping track of future releases.
When I think of glamour and sleepwear, old Hollywood often comes to mind with its soft-focus slinky slips and Hays-code-sheer robes. But I also often think of a more contemporary accessory: the silk mask. Whether it's Holly Golightly or Blair Waldorf, there's something about a silk sleep mask that lends a touch of indulgence to a late morning. Here's a list of sleep-in worthy silk sleep masks at various price points. All Canadian brands are marked with a 🍁
Simon's house brand, miiyu, sells basic 100% silk masks in different colours for CA$29, making it the cheapest silk mask I've ever come across. It's great value for the price but personally, I would spring for a larger mask to block out more light. 🍁
I own bhalfmoon's silk mask in this exact, pretty watercolour pattern which sadly, only seems to be available in a plain slate blue now. It totally blocks out light and feels very soft against your skin. The band is a little on the larger side for my head but it's not so loose that it slips off. At CA$44, this one still comes in at the cheaper end of the scale. 🍁
Next up, we have a couple silk masks with cute patterns from Desmond & Dempsey and Agent Provocateur. They're selling for £60 and £100 respectively. The D&D mask is made from 16 momme silk from China and I love its larger pattern, but if you want the D&D patterns at a lower price, they do make 100% cotton masks for £20. Canadians can pick up cotton D&D masks via Simons.
For the ultimate in extravagance, there's sleep masks from Olivia von Halle. Basic masks starting at £95 but more deluxe versions can run you all the way up to £650 for the LE embellished version (shown above on the right) that comes with a gorgeous silk clutch. Made with a luxuriously dense 19 momme silk.
Finally, it's not a silk mask, but this LE holiday sleep bundle from Province Apothecary is available for for CA$49. The kit includes a double ended jade roller and soft facial dry brush in addition to a 100% organic cotton mask. 🍁
Wishing you respite, deep rest and relaxation, and sweet dreams over the holidays ❄️😴❄️
I really slept on posting about Comme des Garçons Parfums' 30th anniversary (1994), especially because its first perfume, also named Comme des Garçons, was one of my first "niche" purchases.
It's funny looking back at the purchases I made in my early days of discovering the niche world. I think it's a journey that a lot of perfume obsessives can relate to. We're taught that scent is so instinctual and your reactions to scents are so powerful, one imagines that one's tastes are clear and set from the start.
And yet, this is not how we learn to eat, which is largely dependent on scent. There are acquired tastes, what we enjoy changes over time, we can grow out of a favourite dish. The biological fact is, we are social, cultural and political animals. There is no such thing as a pure state of unadulterated desire. Our very instincts, including what smells we like and dislike, are informed by others. That's how we survive as humans. Even the most basic and primal biological functions are highly flexible, adaptable, and continually shaped by the environment around us. There is no meaning without that.
So my tastes were in fact, very untrained when I first started out. It took me many years to develop my sense of smell and learn what it was I really wanted. And I made many mistakes along the way. Certain purchases in those early years would later leave me wondering, what was I thinking? I've since given many of those perfumes away. But that's not Mark Buxton's Comme des Garçons for CdG.
It's been so many years since I bought CdG's original scent and I still love it. I can't imagine ever growing tired of it. It's a sign to me that despite all my inexperienced mishaps, a part of me still knew what I was doing.
It's a bizarre work. The opening hits you with a shot of bristling, peppery, spicy heat. The sharpness of cloves suggest body odour but this is immediately countered by a rich and complex symphony of other warm spices, clean woods, and very light florals. In the dry down, the spices seem to dissolve and infuse a rich brew of oozy smoky labdanum with a drizzle of honey that rounds out the scent beautifully.
It is strange and unusual but not alienating. It's attractive and almost snuggly but not soft, easy going or people pleasing. One of the rare perfumes released by a fashion house that not only expresses the ethos of that house, but also holds its own. It truly is its own beast.
Agent Provocateur will be releasing a new corset, Viva, in select stores next week. Only 14 corsets have been created, and they come studded with 13,000 Swarovski crystals, including clusters of spike crystals at the hips. I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a little about corsets and my only AP "corset."
I'm not sure how much AP is charging for this piece but in general, I have not found the AP corsets to be a good starting place if you are looking to get serious about corsetry. They have the unfortunate characteristic of not simply compressing you at the waist, but everywhere, which makes for an uncomfortable wear and is a sign to me of a non-serious corset maker.
Looking at Viva, it's a an opulent design, but this looks ornamental, like the AP corsets I've tried. It appears to lack proper boning and I'm shocked by the gap at the busk (hardware at the front of the corset) where you can see the model's skin. Maybe that's intentional, but it looks awful to me. I'm also not a fan of the swan hook closure at the top. Viva reminds me of the Mercy corset which also has the swan hook closure and is not a well functioning corset, especially when you could get a proper custom waist cinching overbust for the same price from a top corsetiere.
If you like the exact look of AP's corsets and don't care that the piece is basically crushing your entire torso, go for it. But if you are going to splash out for a corset like Viva, you are better off contacting a corsetiere like Puimond or Dianna DiNoble who have more experience working with special embellishments and can make you a custom piece, or even buying an off the rack model from Northbound Leather that will give you a more snatched, hourglass look and will be much more comfortable to wear.
Anyway, that's why I've never owned an AP corset. The closest I own to a corset from the brand is its Cosima waspie from their Soirée line, a leather piece dripping with Swarovski crystal chains.
I knew this would be an ornamental piece that wouldn't provide any shaping, but I did not anticipate it would also be too delicate to wear out. Shortly after receiving the piece, a couple of the chains started falling out. Some of the hardware is plastic as well. Which is ridiculous at the price point. I can't recall what it was retailing for but I want to say it was at least CA$500 back around 2013? It's an exquisite and pretty piece but I actually haven't gotten much wear out of it because it's fragile. I love AP but this was not my favourite purchase from the brand and it honestly put me off Soirée.
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