Random Fashion Thoughts (Part 3: Style farmer strikes back) - our general discussion thread

[gdl203]

Hard agree - there are a couple of people doing cooler stuff with fleece though. This piece from Eastlogue is quite funky:

You gotta spoiler that stuff

 

[Phrost]

I actually like the look and feel of fleece. I have a Uniqlo one from a few years ago that I love. It’s incredibly warm and lightweight.

Doing a bit of Wikipedia-ing on it, it’s ironic that there’s expensive designer polyester fleece in the market. Apparently the CEO of the company who developed the material intentionally decided against patenting it so that it could be mass-produced cheaply by many manufacturers. I guess some companies found a way to fleece their customers

It does suck that polyester fleece is terrible for the environment. Apparently laundering any synthetic clothing releases a bunch of micro plastics into the water.

I guess wool fleece has a smaller market share since it’s a lot more expensive and heavier than synthetics.

 

[dkboze]

I think this fleece from Cottle (Japan) has a great look.

View attachment 1316951 View attachment 1316952

Not a fleece person but been coveting one of these

 

[gettoasty]

What cologne are guys here wearing? I don’t wear anything regularly but really considering just picking up a bottle of Creed to wear when going out.

And I take it for something like Creed I best go direct rather than Walmart?

looking for a scent that most people would find inoffensive. I have a bottle of vetyver in the office but I got some complaints before.

 

[shopcanoeclub]

Margiela Lazy Sunday morning is my favorite on me but like CDG wonderwood too

 

[Phrost]

What cologne are guys here wearing? I don’t wear anything regularly but really considering just picking up a bottle of Creed to wear when going out.

And I take it for something like Creed I best go direct rather than Walmart?

looking for a scent that most people would find inoffensive. I have a bottle of vetyver in the office but I got some complaints before.

You should sample colognes before buying. Shops like Sephora let you get little test samples so you can try them out and see how it reacts to your skin.

The Bloomingdales by me has a little Creed counter. I like Creed’s Aventus and Green Irish Tweed.

Aventus is a sweet, fruity pineapple-y birch smoke scent that’s popular for going out and is known for attracting compliments.

Green Irish Tweed is really similar to Cool Water. It has a really similar fresh, aquatic DNA, but a more creamy, natural ambergris scent when it dries. It’s the perfect fresh, inoffensive scent IMO.

I also really like Dior Homme, but it can be a bit cloying. It has a lipstick smell to it and clinging sweet richness that could be a bit overwhelming in the summer but perfect for winter.

If you like something along the lines of Dior Homme but don’t like that lipstick vibe, Valentino Uomo is really nice. It has a sparkling sweet chocolate hazelnut vibe to it that’s not too strong.

YSL La Nuit is also a popular going out scent. It has a warm cardamom richness to it that’s probably too much for the office though.

 

[dieworkwear]

What cologne are guys here wearing? I don’t wear anything regularly but really considering just picking up a bottle of Creed to wear when going out.

And I take it for something like Creed I best go direct rather than Walmart?

looking for a scent that most people would find inoffensive. I have a bottle of vetyver in the office but I got some complaints before.

There's nothing wrong with Creed. Aventus, in particular, is a favorite in the fragrance community. I also think Green Irish Tweed smells nice.

But it's terribly expensive, even when you find it on discount. The packaging is just packaging, but Creed's packaging is uniquely disappointing for what you pay. I also find the scents don't last very long on my skin.

Luca Turin, who's considered somewhat of a leading tastemaker in perfumes, is particularly harsh on the company. An excerpt from his book Perfumes, co-written with his partner Tania Sanchez:

Creed’s claim to be being purveyors of perfume to various royal and imperial houses of Europe is dodgy: their use of the Three Feathers device (wisely minus the “Ich Dien” motto) on all their fugly packaging suggests they have a Royal Warrant from the Prince of Wales, which to our knowledge is not and has never been the case. One is inclined to take with a pinch of salt the long list of deceased emperors and empresses that they allegedly helped smell better. Ditto the supposed trouble to which they go to obtain rare essences and extracts: slow, expensive, and low-yield things like tinctures, which would make even Guerlain blanch. Creed’s perfumes make abundant use of synthetic materials (see Green Irish Tweed) and are only slightly above average in use of naturals. Now to Millésime Imperial: millésime in French is a pompous word for “year,” used by winemakers instead of année. I’m not sure what Creed means by it, but it sounds good. The fragrance is a mini Green Irish Tweed with more citrus – utterly unremarkable.

In the fragrance community, it's hard to tell if the people who are diehard Creed fans are only saying so because Creed is held in such high regard. Aventus comes up all the time as the "top ten favs" when people list anything. At the same time, it's hard to tell if the people who say Creed is overrated are just being contrarian.

That said, I've bought maybe five bottles over the years. I've only kept GIT and Aventus, and I almost never wear them.

Like with clothing, I think the best route to fragrances is to find some basic scents, then see what you like or dislike about them. Then explore scents with those notes. So if you like vetiver notes, then find vetiver scents.

Lately, I've been mostly wearing Helmut Lang's Curion, which is like the smell of soft suede inside of a purse. Dusita's Issara is like honey mixed with hay. Then a couple of Chanel scents, including Coromandel, Cuir de Russie, and Sycomore. Encre Noire is a good substitute for Sycomore, if you're looking for an alternative.

Claire Vukcevic also has a good guide to sampling different scents. There's a lot to dissect here, but just try a few things from sample houses, and then see what you like about them.

The Top Ten Male Designer Fragrances Every Beginner Should Sample – Basenotes

www.basenotes.net

The Top Ten Niche Fragrances Every Beginner Should Sample – Basenotes

www.basenotes.net

 

[cyc wid it]

In no particular order:
Tom Ford Tuscan Leather
Tom Ford Rive d'Ambre
Creed GIT
Creed Aventus
Creed Silver Mountain Water (can find something similar for much cheaper)
Margiela Jazz Club

Worth sampling Le Labo Neroli/Rose

 

[OccultaVexillum]

I've been running through all the Le Labo, Tom Ford, Margiela and DS Durga samples over the last 6 months and am about to ready to get a full size.
I've had no desire to wear a cologne until the last year, so this has been a long process of me just trialing things. Most samples last about 10 days, so i just use it daily until it's gone as i've found my opinion will change between day 1 and day 10.

Strangely i didn't like any of the TF scents which really surprised me. They all kind of just smelt like root beer and various vanillas. I'm only halfway through DS Durga but so far there's been nothing i really like from them either.
For Margiela, Jazz Club, At the Barber and Lazy Sunday i all really liked but found they just started to smell to synthetic as the day went on. I'd probably buy a full size of At the Barber though.
Le Labo on the other hand i've found a lot to like.
The Bergamot 22 is my favourite, the Limette scent, which was another bergamot heavy i really like but it was one of their city scents so i think i have to wait until next time.
Their Oud, vetevier, tonka and Lys are all really nice too, but i don't find a consistent connection to them. Some days i really love Oud and other days I want to take a shower and get rid of it.
I think most of the Margiela are very inoffensive, as are the bergamot and limette from Le Labo.

Like DWW said the key is finding the core notes you enjoy and then trying different fragrances that are built upon those. For me it's obviously bergamot, citrus and grass.

 

[cocostella]

Dig the cologne discussion and appreciate the knowledge shared. Also, lol Noob.

 

[dieworkwear]

looking for a scent that most people would find inoffensive. I have a bottle of vetyver in the office but I got some complaints before.

Office fragrances can be tough because there are so many different types of work environments. I think it's always safer to just not wear a fragrance at all, especially since fragrances aren't that common nowadays in the US. That said, if I were to recommend a generic office fragrance to someone, I'd probably go with Tom Ford's Gray Vetiver or Penhaligon's Sartorial. Jeremy Fragrance, a loud and somewhat annoying fragrance reviewer on YouTube, recently released a scent literally called The Office. To be honest, I find him a bit grating, so I can't wear his stuff, but even his harshest critics admit that The Office is pretty good (although, this is a low bar because office fragrances are safe and generic by design).

Vetiver can be very grassy and rooty. Tom Ford's Grey Vetiver is a vetiver, but it's pretty tame. IMO, for an office, you want to avoid stuff like oud, or anything that's too loud or unusual. Gray Vetiver and Sartorial are pretty safe in that regard.

FWIW, my favorite fragrance store is Twisted Lily in Brooklyn. They hold 20% off sales fairly regularly if you sign up for their newsletter. They also run the discount site Perfume1. The Scent Bar, also known as Lucky Scent, in Los Angeles is another big retailer. If you email these places, they may be able to suggest office-appropriate scents. Just buy samples first. They do mail order.

Oh, and the most inoffensive, safest scents are probably the new minimalist ones, as pioneered by Escentric Molecules (try their Molecule 01). Rachel Syme has an article about this at The New York Times (I would add Aether to her list). To be honest, I feel like these are somewhat of a rip off. But if you want to wear a scent to an office and offend literally no one, it would be hard to beat this category of fragrances. At best, they smell like how your hands smell after you've washed them with soap. If you can smell them at all.

The New Softies (Published 2018)

What is it about millennials that makes them want to smell like nothing?

www.nytimes.com

 

[NaTionS]

When I worked in cubicles I’d wear TF Grey Vetiver in the colder months and TF Neroli Portofino/(Aqua) in the warmer months but now I have my own office so I wear what I want

 

[Phrost]

Yeah if your coworkers are already making a fuss about your cologne, it could be safer to just not wear any at work.

Coworkers can be assholes, but that very well could’ve been a justifiable complaint. Some people have really sensitive noses and get headaches and nausea from strong smells.

That’s another reason why you should try and sample first rather than blind buying. What may smell nice to you at first can literally make you feel sick wearing it all day.

If you’re looking for relatively inoffensive office appropriate scents, D&G The One and Terre d’Hermes are also popular. It’s all subjective though because Terre d’Hermes gives me a headache.

 

[dieworkwear]

Yeah if your coworkers are already making a fuss about your cologne, it could be safer to just not wear any at work.

Coworkers can be assholes, but that very well could’ve been a justifiable complaint. Some people have really sensitive noses and get headaches and nausea from strong smells.

That’s another reason why you should try and sample first rather than blind buying. What may smell nice to you at first can literally make you feel sick wearing it all day.

If you’re looking for relatively inoffensive office appropriate scents, D&G The One and Terre d’Hermes are also popular. It’s all subjective though because Terre d’Hermes gives me a headache.

Play it safe.

Bring a sample to work and spray it on an unsuspecting coworker you don't like. Do this for a week or two and see if people complain. Act nonchalant. Maybe ask, casually, "do you smell that? Ugh, what's on Jimmy? Anyway, what do you think of that scent?"

If people like it, use the fragrance on yourself. If people complain, well, then you've gotten rid of a coworker you don't like.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

On scent, I recommend basenotes.net for reviews and ratings, and The Perfumed Court for sample sets. There's also a thread on this forum, https://www.styleforum.net/threads/scent-fragrance-of-the-day-thread.42777/ which while it can be difficult to work through, does contain a lot of useful knowledge.