subscribe to beauty blog via RSSHe Wood, She Wood. Would You?
September 12, 2008 7:43 am
Combining what they call “irreverent Canadian wit” and a knack for fine tailoring, Dsquared’s Dan and Dean Caten have become fashion darlings (the fact that the identical twins have a tendency to dress the same doesn’t hurt them in the likability department). Beginning tomorrow, the brothers will begin a new chapter in their charmed lives—a
vetiver-woodsy scented chapter—when their first two fragrances launch in the United States. Called He Wood and She Wood, both perfumes take their name and inspiration from the great Canadian outdoors of the Catens’ youth and the same provocative sexiness they put into their clothing line. We sat down with the twins before their launch party last night in west Chelsea, where they candidly revealed memories of washing underwear on rocks in the river and the truth behind that precisely matched wardrobe.
After being in the rag trade for so long, why enter the fragrance category now?
Well, He Wood has been out in Europe for about a year, but, you know, we have a brand and it’s booming. Plus, we’re tired of buying other people’s luggage, glasses, fragrances. And there’s something nice about being able to buy something you like, made with things that you need and want in mind.
And what are the things you needed and wanted in these
fragrances?
Vetiver, definitely. We really wanted a strong vetiver smell amidst woodsy, foresty things. It’s meant to smell like a romp in the woods by the river. That’s the men’s fragrance—air, water, and woods. The women’s is a bit sweeter—made of light, sap, and woods. She Wood also has that touch of the edible from the vanilla that’s in it.
Sounds like you were pretty involved in the composition of the
scents.
5,000 percent involved. We wanted it to be our Chanel No.5—timeless, not seasonal—to represent us as people. We wanted a wood base, you know, like washing-your-underwear-on-a-rock-in-a-river “woodsy,” so we went to ICR to produce the juice. Then we smelled like 25 different notes, figured out the things we liked and didn’t like, and then told them to pump one up, tone another down, bring another through the top more.
How did that process differ from designing clothes?
It’s the same process in a weird way, actually—a similar creative process that began with asking ourselves, would we wear this, first and foremost.
Where did the idea for the bottle come from?
That was actually inspired by a trip to our home country, where they have these bottles of maple syrup at the duty-free shop that come in a wooden box to protect it—like it’s precious. Plus we liked the idea of the contrast of warm wood and a cold glass bottle. Feel that.
Huh. Yeah, the bottle is actually real cold.
And just so you know you, for every tree we cut down to make one bottle, we plant three more. Going forward, we’re going to have a refillable bottle, too.
So, I have to ask: Has either of you ever come home with a new piece of clothing that the other doesn’t already own?
No. We have two of everything. We just double the orders whenever we send them out.
Photo: Courtesy of DSquared2
tags: Chanel No. 5, Dean and Dan, DSquared2, Fragrance, He Wood, ICR, She Wood
