REVIEW: 'M/MINK' by Byredo

I call my miniature schnauzer 'The Mink'.  She's a lovely gunmetal grey colour.  Clipping rather than stripping has removed all the coarseness from her coat so she's soft, velvety and very cuddly.  Regular bathing means that she rarely exudes that 'doggy' smell.

Byredo's M/MINK is an animal of an entirely different nature.

As I first inhaled this bizarre exercise in scent-as-art, an old Depeche Mode lyric popped into my head.  From 1986's Stripped: "You're breathing in fumes I taste when we kiss." M/MINK is the thick, smoggy air above a futuristic cityscape, all burning oil drums,  crumbling zombies and scuttling rodents.

M/MINK is a mechanical animal.  Commissioned by Paris-based art and design duo M/M (Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag), the original brief was a block of calligrapher's ink.  And there's certainly a dense, inky darkness.  But there's also a shrill metallic scrape in the the opening.  Then the low call of a dirty animal in distress. It's PETA's worst nightmare as scent.

And it's brilliant.

The expectations of bloggers and reviewers are so often dashed by high-concept scents. It's the major criticism levelled at Etat Libre d'Orange.  Great idea - decidedly ordinary fragrance.  Byredo's own Fantastic Man, created in association with the Dutch style magazine is a case in point.  Well, M/MINK is a rat right up your drainpipe.  You couldn't ask for more creativity and originality.  Whether or not it's a wearable fragrance is another matter entirely.

I need a reassuring cuddle from my dog.

          [By ANDREW]