Comme des Garçons Zagorsk (Incense Series): fragrance review

Zagorsk by Comme des Garçons is among the less mentioned specimens in the Japanese-centrifuge brand's collection of fragrances inspired by various incenses used as burning materials around ther world. Comme des Garçons was among the first to explore the idea that people have cultural associations with burned materials. "Incense," after all, comes from the Latin verb meaning "to burn." They launched not one but five scents in their iconic Incense Series, each geographically codified to appeal to a specific sensibility and religious context. 

                               Gordana Ristic, pic borrowed from Pinterest

In the case of frankincense, which happens to be the main material of ecclesiastical incense -the kind that is burned in censers in Christian Orthodox and Catholic churches- the association with church is a given, even for the non-pious. The emanations from the church escape into the air, and the congregation has fumigated their clothes during service just enough, so that a subtle trail can be caught by a sensitive nose outside afterwards. 

 Zagorsk, composed by Evelyn Boulanger, is fittingly dedicated to the Eastern orthodox churches. I picture them on Eastern European soil as a solace from the cold, but also bearing the birch (leathery, tarry) and fir atmosphere of the outside, the coniferous tonalities that befit countries of vast forests. Plus I detect a clean clove note, embracing the cold, which is inextricably tied to my mind with Russia and Eastern Europe; those Soviet carnation scents must have been at the root of that. It's perfect for winter weather and it is alongside Vert d' Encens by Tom Ford, lamentably discontinued, a green incense that defies that cliche of heavy and cloying incenses that are so full of balsams that they cease to smell of frankincense and turn like orientalized soups of lead-ladden notes. Worth seeking out for a long-drawn sniff. 

Comme des Garçons Incense Series Avignon: fragrance review

Using as fine fragrance the equivalent of ecclesiastic incense of the Catholic variety, marvelously assimilated in Avignon by Comme de Garçons (2002), is an acquired taste for many and probably a bit of a sacrilege for some. But for perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour it must have felt relieving to drive out the ghosts of the past by appropriating them a dissimilar role.

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Comme des Garçons Avignon fragrance, named after the French seat of the Papal court during the conflict with Rome in the 14th century, evokes grim cathedrals and catacombs with centuries of humidity and tangy frankincense smoke attached to their stony walls. To give the background of the name a short historical perspective, it all arose from a conflict of power.

Following the strife between Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII, and the death of his successor Benedict XI after eight months in office, a rupture was evident between the French crown and the Pope seat in Rome. The conclave elected Clement V, in 1305. Clement, who was a Frenchman, declined to move to Rome, and in 1309, he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years enjoying a succession of no less than 7 French popes.

via wikimedia commons

Incense reigns in Bertrand's work,  accounted for in reverse psychology by his strict Catholic upbringing. When church duties collide with corporal punishment, guilt and internal suffering, it might become rather discomfitting. The realm of the senses, smell in particular, retains nevertheless a visceral appeal, enhanced via the perverted pleasure nascent from that which is denied of: ambrette and labdanum in the scent of CDG Avignon recall the sinful body...

For someone like me, raised in the Christian Orthodox faith, I find that the fragrance of Avignon, due to its smoky and denser background with patchouli and moss, bears kinship with my Mediterranean memories of church incense wafting off Byzantine abodes. I may have been spared the rod, but I can identify with the odd sensuality of an austere type of scent which I shouldn't really like, yet which I end up loving all the same.

Related reading on PerfumeShrine: 

The Incense Series: a Holy Week through Incense Scents
Incense fragrance reviews