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subscribe to beauty blog via RSSOdin, The Fragrance
September 21, 2009 12:46 pm
Until now, boutique owners Paul Birardi and Eddy Chai have enjoyed a reputation among the downtown fashion set as a duo with a collectively good eye for trends and an ability to know what their customers want. Odin, their men’s store in Nolita (its women’s equivalent, Pas de Deux, is in the East Village), stocks choice items from collections like 3.1 Phillip Lim, Shipley & Halmos, and Rag & Bone accordingly. It was shoppers’ olfactory interests that compelled their latest endeavor. “The way people react to fragrance is inspiring,” Birardi says, referencing the unique relationship between scent and emotion. In order to offer their own interpretation of that visceral experience, they did something unexpected: They decided to launch a unisex perfume—three, actually. Already big fans of the Comme des Garçons incense collection, Birardi and Chai sought to do something similarly effective, with their own spin. Working with perfumers from Drom, they designed three unique eaux, each of which brings something different to the table. 01 Nomad has a warm, spicy sweetness to it courtesy of juniper berries, Himalayan cedar leaves, and West Indian sandalwood, while 02 Owari, the freshest of the bunch, uses mandarin and grapefruit essences to temper the richness of golden amber and Tonkin musk. 03 Century has hints of cypress—a masculine note that is singularly responsible for drawing us to men’s fragrances over women’s—which are softened by mint, vetiver, and oak moss for a complex, well-rounded finish. They launch next month at Odin and its online store and are hopefully just the beginning of Birardi and Chai’s adventures in beauty.
tags: Comme des Garcons, Drom, Eddy Chai, Fragrance, Odin, Paul Birardi
