Fresh for Spring

Christmas is not even close, but designers are already thinking about spring.

Here's a fresh, mild scent that really is just right for spring. (untitled) l'eau, yes, that's the name of the perfume and the way it is presented on its clinical flask, is by Martin Margiela, a fashion designer I knew nothing about. The perfume reminds me of Lancome's O de Lancome, another fresh, light scent, but I think Margiela's concoction is subtler and sweeter.

Below is Wikipedia on Margiela:

During the 1980s, the Japanese avantgardists, with Rei Kawakubo—creator of the label Comme des Garçons—had turned the fashion scene upside-down with their eccentric and ground-breaking designs. Martin Margiela and the Antwerp Six would carry on the work, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction, also embraced by the aforementioned Rei Kawakubo, is important for the understanding of Martin Margiela's fashion statement. Margiela famously redesigns by hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.

Margiela's fashion design isn't that avant-garde. It is quite bland actually (here is his website, a strange design concept which looks like we are accessing his files).

But despite these "avant-garde" inclinations, he has produced a pleasant scent, light and fresh, just in time for the spring that is only five months away!

Here's what Pure Beauty has to say about this new fragrance, launched in 2011:

Maison Martin Margiela (untitled) l’eau retains the radicality of the original untitled fragrance while opting for a new olfactory approach; while the original features the cool green notes of galbanum, the new scent celebrates citrus aromas. An unusual double distillation process is applied to mandarin orange and lemon, as well as crushed leaves, while curly leafed mint and essential oil of buchu underscore the scent’s rich green character. The handcrafted bottle wears the signature code of Maison Martin Margiela, the emblematic white with a trace of paint. The fragrance itself is a transparent green.

And more from here:

This fragrance manages to refine itself with a lime green undercurrent swished with ice cool mountain brooks. It deftly manages to combine cutting edge modernity with a notion of good old fashioned clean Spring like images, spurning floral bases and concentrating on the cool, sparkling appeal of a Summer scent. Mandarin orange and lemon are added to crushed leaves with mossy accents while a hint of mint and essential oil of buchu penetrates through the composition which relays subtle femininity.