I am a night walker. Much to the dismay of family and friends, I have always loved tramping alone through the dark. Autumn has been my favorite season since I began school at four and few things have ever invigorated me like a solitary stroll on a gusty October night. Perfect fall days have a straightforward, blue-skied radiance about them that seems to call for something crisp and handsome — Leonard Pour Homme, CB I Hate Perfume Violet Empire, MDCI Invasion Barbare, and L'Artisan Timbuktu spring to mind. But what to wear after hours, when the wind sweeps up plastic bags and dandelion filaments to haunt the air, when echoes ring in the quiet and the singed smell of dried leaves weaves about you?
1. Ormonde Jayne Ormonde: In Angela Carter's “The Company of Wolves”, the Big Baddie is a handsome werewolf and Little Miss Hood cleverly seduces him, offering up her red cloak, her innocence and her humanity to save her skin. I bet this Red would favor the spices, green sheen and dark, velvety woods of Ormonde.
2. Alexander McQueen Kingdom: Many will consider this more trick than treat, and I can't deny the uncompromising sweatiness of Kingdom's cumin and pepper, the potency of sour rose at its heart or the surprisingly sweet and molten finish. But if you want to go wild, there's no half-way.
3. Comme des Garçons Avignon: Etro's Messe de Minuit ('Midnight Mass') is frequently cited as the ultimate Gothic fragrance, but with an orange pomander opening and the damp of its middle, I've always found the Etro to be an indoor scent, one that conjures the close mustiness of a basement or attic. For me, the incense fragrance that calls for the cold touch of moonlight is the stony and somber Avignon.
4. Kenzo Flower Oriental: Far from the banana-popsicle pastel of the original Flower, this flanker is all about black powder and smoked woods. Sheer and yet richly resinous in the drydown, there is something about Flower Oriental that evokes the spirit of darker classics, like Guerlain's Vol de Nuit.
5. Serge Lutens Borneo 1834: When I first tried this, it reminded me of one of those chalky, highly flavored and yet suspiciously earthy anti-diarrhetic “chocolates”. A year later, I still find it horrifying, but there is something deeply compelling about it, too.
Note: image via Images de Parfums.
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My God woman! Borneo an “anti-diarrhetic “chocolate!! Sacrilege, I am telling you, sacrilege.
Seriously, although I enjoy Borneo myself (I pictured it as sipping dark cocoa at a parisian cafe on a rainy day waiting for a lover in a camel coat that smells of patchouli leaves) this was a very funny line. Thanks!
I hope you do find something in it to enjoy later on.
Great list and intriguing subject
Erin I'm right with you on October's compelling and dusky beauty. (This year, in the UK, it's a bit weird, too warm really but I've whinged all year about the weather so must stop!) And I love Angela Carter's writing, Kingdom and Avignon so thank you for this evocative review.
Well, I *do* enjoy it – but after what I said about the scent, I must sound deranged. Your vision is certainly more conventionally (and wonderfully) romantic. Oh to be in Paris – and have that camel coat! Thank you for your forgiving comment….
Dusky is just the right word. Although, “frosty” would work here this year – unlike the UK, Alberta is having a pretty nippy fall.
Us Kingdom fans have to stick together! I think we're pretty thin on the ground… Do you like the bottle? It looks like something that belongs in an Angela Carter story – a poisoned, magical (or blood-filled – ew!!) fruit.
Yes, I do like the bottle and you're right it does look as if it belongs in Angela Carter land. (I love her fairy tales – Bluebeard in particular. I must dig them out – perfect October reading). The bottle reminds me of a heart so yes, blood filled – eek!
Something wicked this way comes…I must try Kingdom!
I don't think I appreciated Angela Carter when I first read her, because she's so different. Re-reading her stories, I realized how influential and prescient she really was. We wouldn't have writers like George Saunders or Steven Millhauser without her. It's certainly the time of year to re-familiarize myself with her Bluebeard.
Wicked is right! Go easy when you sample it – I sprayed a tissue with Kingdom before I went to bed the other night, and my husband had to get up and flush the kleenex down the toilet.
I must try Kingdom…when alone, outdoors and sparingly!
Heehee! Yes, exactly…
Erin, you are amazing, I am a night walker myself and I SO agree with almost everyting you wrote:) I have four of these scents in my collection and I love “The Company of Wolves”. I think I would add Black Cashmere (but I would add Black Cashmere everywhere if I could;) and hmmm… maybe Heeley's Cardinal?
Hey, we're kindred spirits.
Thanks for your kinds words. I thought a lot about Black Cashmere – but I promised Robin only five! I haven't tried Cardinal yet. Clearly, that's quite an omission, so I'll get right on that.
“Kind”, sorry, I'm lisping today.
Ormonde. My Precious.
Great suggestions! Walking during a cool, damp night might be nice with a loamy, green chypre, too, like Jacomo Silences. Especially if you were walking near a river.
We loves it. Tricksy and beautiful, it is, my precious.
Thanks! I love Silences. And the word “loamy”. I shall endeavor to use the latter at least once a day.
Flower Oriental! WORD!
To ya mutha – or anybody's mutha with taste. Sorry, it's late here
Hel-loo you creecher of z nite! (no idea where this came from, LOL). Unlike you E, I am an *indoor* CotN, don't exactly like fall and feel most comfy cozied up inside my room, waiting for the first shafts of morning light to send me to sleep. I do enjoy a nice solitary stroll up and down the meandering side streets of the Old town where shadows dance around in the flickering light and upon cobblestones. On a languid summer afternoon. And the river is just behind that block of buildings… Summer is me, I guess.
I do love me some Borneo. Hardly anyone mentions Kingdom so I'm glad you did because it's such a great scent and rightfully cast as nocturnal. I'll add – dirty
But most of all I adore Flower Oriental. One of these days I'll take it out for a crisp morning stroll hoping you'll be wearing it too under a pulled-up collar on a cool Alberta night. 
Do try Cardinal, it's worth it!:)
Thanks, I will!
Awww, psychic perfume connnection. (So much nicer than psychic twin stigmata or whatever Lindsay Lohan was supposed to have had in that recent movie.) And I like your accent! Any man who wears Kingdom earns my respect – although it's not particularly feminine, is it? I don't know *what* it is… sort of, well, feral I guess. And dirty, as you say. The ending is so pretty, it's a real shapeshifter, really. Do you wear Borneo in the summer?! Good gosh, man, you're brave!
Nice to think of you stalking around at night with all that Angela Carter imagery in your head…and wafting out all that perfume as you go…
It's nice to think of you thinking of me. My mother, in particular, has always worried about the night stalking (and would probably worry about the Carter imagery, if she know of it…)