# Comme des Garçons — Comme des Garcons 2011

> This is Comme des Garcons' most famous conceptual provocation in scent form: a 2011 eau de parfum built around accords of industrial glue and brown packing tape, presented in a deliberately misshapen,

## Essence
This is Comme des Garcons' most famous conceptual provocation in scent form: a 2011 eau de parfum built around accords of industrial glue and brown packing tape, presented in a deliberately misshapen, "rejected" bubble-flawed bottle that cannot stand up on its own. The house framing, "a fragrance that couldn't exist in a bottle that shouldn't exist" and "an industrialized flower to go with glue, an imaginary flower from an unknown civilization," is the whole point: an interrogation of what deserves to exist and who decides what gets rejected. Often catalogued as "A New Perfume" to distinguish it from the 1994 self-titled original, it is the rare avant-garde stunt that turned out genuinely wearable, and it has become a cult object, reissued for its 10th anniversary in 2021.

## Scent Profile
The opening is the event: an in-your-face synthetic blast that genuinely reads as glue, fresh packing tape, polystyrene and acetone, lit by sparkling aldehydes and the saffron-leather facet of safraleine that gives the whole thing a slightly metallic, sueded sheen. Robin of Now Smell This pinned the materials precisely, writing that the flowers "smell like they're filtered through various man-made materials, ranging from fingernail polish remover to crushed concrete."

Then the trick: about 15 to 20 minutes in, lilac and hawthorn push through, and the composition pivots into what wearers describe as a riot of flower oxides, an airy, abstract, almost techno take on lilac that is sterile and cool rather than powdery and sweet. The tension between the inorganic and the organic is the artistic content; one reviewer aptly called it "a bouquet of freshly-cut flowers in a crystal vase in the center of a freshly-painted white room."

The drydown is where the wearable reputation comes from: the glue and tape recede into supporting roles, the lilac softens, and a clean musk and styrax leave something soft, soapy and faintly sweet. Denyse Beaulieu of Grain de Musc reported that on her skin it "evolves into a big heady flower over time, and the tape/glue accord reminds me of the rougher (though not animal) part of leather." Detractors get something else entirely, reading the dry, clean musk as offbeat laundry detergent or, in one memorable description, "a morgue cleaned with the strongest detergent." The note pyramid is unusually honest, and the safraleine here is well-blended and leathery rather than overdosed.

## Performance
Strong opening diffusion, long life, modest mid-stage sillage. The synthetic top is potent and projects; multiple wearers report longevity that runs a full day or more, with the industrial notes still faintly detectable hours in. Sillage settles to moderate after the dramatic first act, becoming a skin-level scent bubble rather than a bomb. Consensus places it firmly in the reliable-performer category, unusual for a fragrance this conceptual.

## Wearing Context
This is more versatile than its description implies, which is the running joke among fans: people who bought it as a novelty end up wearing it constantly. Its clean, abstract, slightly blank character makes it oddly all-purpose, and several wearers describe reaching for it when they don't want to wear anything in particular, finding that it works in warm or cold weather alike. It is genuinely unisex. The one caveat is social: the first 20 minutes can read as overtly chemical to bystanders, so it is best sprayed and given time, and best worn by someone who enjoys smelling intriguingly indecipherable rather than conventionally pleasant.

## Comparisons & DNA
The clearest lineage is internal, within CdG's own back catalogue of inorganic scents. The Synthetic series, especially Dry Clean, is the nearest relative, often described as Dry Clean plus packing tape and lilac petals. The metallic 8.88 is a cousin, though far better integrated here. The Odeur series (Odeur 53, Odeur 71) shares the same anti-natural ambition. From another house, the CB I Hate Perfume accords Cellophane Tape and Rubber Cement are the closest spiritual relatives. For the floral-through-an-industrial-filter idea there is no true mainstream analogue, which is precisely why it became a reference point.

## Reception
This is a critical and cult success, with a clear love-it or dislike-it split that runs through the critics themselves. Robin of Now Smell This landed on the negative side, "I don't care for it, but if you're a fan of the line it is well worth a try," explicitly because of a dislike for laundry-detergent muskiness rather than any objection to the concept. Denyse Beaulieu, by contrast, actively enjoyed wearing it and prized the way the smells of glue and flowers connect, while The Silver Fox blog called it "playful, otherworldly and yet deadly serious in its intent." General sentiment trends genuinely positive, with several wearers naming it the best thing CdG has done and praising it as proof that a concept fragrance can be both intellectually interesting and a pleasure to wear. The minority report finds it toxic, metallic and unpleasant, with one wearer comparing its disturbing quality to Kouros.

## Versions & Reformulation
Originally launched in 2011 as a 100 ml eau de parfum, it was brought back into production for its 10th anniversary in 2021 and is again marketed under Puig's stewardship of the CdG fragrance license. No major reformulation controversy has surfaced, and the reissue is generally treated as the same fragrance. The bottle, a melted, bubble-permeated form that arrives shrink-wrapped like an artifact and cannot stand, is integral to the concept; wearers note the scent works best experienced in its original bottle and packaging.

## Acquisition Notes
Thanks to the 2021 reissue, this is more accessible than most decade-old conceptual releases, available again rather than purely a secondary-market hunt. It launched as a 100 ml eau de parfum priced around $140. Sampling first is wise given how divisive the opening is, but it is one of the safer weird blind buys because the drydown is so unexpectedly clean and wearable. The reissue makes vintage-hunting largely unnecessary unless you specifically want an original bottle.

## Notable Facts & Lore
- The conceptual scaffolding traces to Rei Kawakubo's lumpy, intentionally imperfect design philosophy, rendered here as a bottle that "should have been" rejected but was given the right to exist.
- The official copy is pure provocation: "What qualifies anything for the right to exist? Who has the right to decide what should be rejected?"
- It carries multiple names in the wild, including "A New Perfume" and the confusing "Comme des Garcons Eau de Parfum," which collides with the 1994 original.
- Robin of Now Smell This wished aloud they had simply called it "Comme des Garcons 4" and put it in the pebble bottle.
- More than one critic admitted to sniffing actual rolls of packing tape to check the accuracy of the accord.
- Both Denyse Beaulieu and Robin noted that their cats are drawn to packing tape too.