How it started.

I wasn't brought up to be aware of scent and as a particularly gormless man, it took me a long time to start.

It was when I started driving taxis that opened my eyes all those men wearing these aquatics and all those women that wore Chanel No.5. Now I know I shouldn't piss on an icon and I know that No.5 is a masterpiece but when every Friday and Saturday night women of a certain age and social class in various states of sobriety smother themselves with it it becomes very tiring. I can assure you that if you're so drunk you're passing out and vomiting in the same motion, wearing No.5 doesn't improve upon the shining hour. I just don't want or need to smell it again.

I digress, after finally becoming aware of all this olfactory noise, it starts to seep in that there were things I didn't want to smell like, a bowl of fruit or something wet for example, but then what does smell good, Le Male smelled very good as did Obsession for men. But does a man really smell of these things, possibly a young man looking,a man child, a callow youth, a young man searching to be worn by a scent to define what he might be.

What however does an adult man wear something that reflects his values as a man perhaps or possibly his own personal mythology. Every culture has a mythology that people buy into to a greater or lesser degree. A framework of identity, a backgrounb that helps define us. Mine is the land the woods and the forest, the timber and leather, the things that can be done with  the hands. These are the things I wish to smell and to smell of, in particular sawn wood and leather. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate a good amber for example, a lovely fougere, but me, as a man should smell of leather, it's taken me a long while to work it out and a lot of money in sampling but my first and best love is leather.