Why Not a Fougère?Fresh Aromatic Eau de Parfum

Why Not a Fougère? by Mark Buxton is a unisex fresh woody aromatic eau de parfum, created by David Chieze. A recognizable fougère, yet displaced.

The man behind Comme des Garçons

Mark Buxton is one of the great contemporary perfumers, and his house bears his name. He created the very first Comme des Garçons fragrance, followed by 2, 3, Man, White, and Cologne, and has created for Givenchy, Versace, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Burberry, and Le Labo. English, he moved to Germany at eight, trained in Hamburg, settled in Paris, and founded his house in 2008. One anecdote sums him up: at 21 years old, he appeared on the German game show Wetten, dass…? wagering that he could identify any perfume by scent — he correctly identified all five presented to him. His formula: “a perfume should be like a good jazz song — vibrant and harmonious.” The Freedom Collection was composed with David Chieze, his right-hand man; the house claims three signature materials common to all four of its launch fragrances — vetiver, ambergris, and davana.

An opening of bergamot, angelica, and pear

Bergamot opens as it should in a fougère. But the angelica is overdosed here, which the house claims: a green, earthy, musky root that naturally contains Exaltolide, a musk found in its seeds. And pear, a round and juicy fruit, is not part of the repertoire.

A heart of lavender, geranium, and chamomile

Lavender and geranium form the classic heart of any fougère: one aromatic and camphoraceous, the other rosy and green. Chamomile, meanwhile, adds a herbal and apple-like bitterness that is never found in them.

A base of patchouli, tonka bean, and osmanthus

Patchouli and tonka bean classically close the fragrance — tonka's coumarin is the founding material of the genre. Then osmanthus arrives: a Chinese flower with facets of apricot and leather, foreign to the fougère, and it is what gives the base the leathery note claimed by the house.

The house's approach

All the building blocks of the fougère are there, and three intruders displace them. The fougère is a genre defined since 1882 by an almost fixed formula: lavender, geranium, coumarin, oakmoss. The house keeps the whole — lavender, geranium, patchouli, tonka bean — then slips in a pear “for modernity,” a chamomile, and an osmanthus, and overdoses the angelica. The result remains identifiable as a fougère while no longer being quite one. It is the same exercise as with Why Not a Cologne?: take a codified genre and shift it one step further.

For whom, for what occasions?

For those who love aromatics and know the genre well enough to appreciate its displacement. All year round, by day as well as by night. Why Not a Fougère? by Mark Buxton is the most aromatic of the five.