(untitled) Maison Martin Margiela

The Maison Martin Margiela website has to be the most bizarre website I've visited to this date.  It's not bizarre in a 'woah, that's crazy!' kind of way, but in a 'wwwhhhhaaatt?  I'm utterly confused' kind of way.  It is the most simplistic website that I've come across since the '90s!  I assume its design is in keeping with the fashion house's vision, as opposed to a cost cutting exercise.

But I digress.

François Guillot /
Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images

For all those non-fashionistas out there, Who is Martin Margiela?  Why, a designer, of course, but supposedly one of the most elusive around*.  He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium until 1979, and from 1984 until 1987 he was a design assistant at Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris.  In 1988 he founded Maison Martin Margiela and the rest of the story is history, as they say!

Well, but not really, because there's one point in history I want to focus on - January 2010 when Maison Martin Margiela launched their fragrance line.

(untitled) is said to open with 'green freshness' and dry into incense and musk notes.  Well, let me tell you, any green tones that exist are hiding behind huge, magnificent cedarwood notes.  It's like your being drowned in No.2 pencils.

The thick scent of cedar makes this fragrance quite a dry scent, but it also keeps it from sitting too heavily on the skin.  As it dries hints of incense and musk make their appearance, but they are in the background, adding depth to the overall scent of cedar, which has remained consistently distinct throughout.

This scent is unique and not for the lovers of sweet, soft, powdery, and romantic floral scents.  But if you're someone who likes a bit of adventure in your fragrance, or tends to lean towards oriental and, of course, woody scents, then this fragrance is for you!

*Want to know more about Martin Margiela?  I highly recommend reading this 2008 article, Fashion's Invisible Man, from the New York Times.