100 TWEEDS Eau de Parfum by Euphorium Brooklyn for Women and Men.
FRAGRANCE PROFILE
A rich herbaceous fragrance inspired by a tincture of 100 tweeds featuring accords of:
Heather & Heath
Bracken, Lichen & Moss
Berry, Honey & Balsam
Peat, Mordent & Musk
100 TWEEDS Eau de Parfum by Euphorium Brooklyn:
– Sourced from the Finest Rare and Exotic Oils, Tinctures and Absolutes
– Traditional Euphoria Inducing Komodo Process
– Handcrafted in Brooklyn, New York
– Available in 50ML (with additional bulb atomizer), 30ML, & 8ML spray top bottles
PERFUMER’S INSPIRATION
A tincture of 100 tweed jackets.
FRAGRANCE NOTES
Lavender, Iris, Acacia Mimosa, Clary Sage, Rosewood, Katrafay, Galbanum, Calamus, Hyssop, Hemlock, Ivy, Oregano, Black Pepper, Celery Seed, Parsley Seed, Myrrh, Wormwood, Green Yarrow, Ajowan, Oakmoss, Labdanum, Sweet Tobacco, Berry, Honey, Coumarin, Guaiacwood, Cabreuva, White Agarwood, Himalayan Cedar, Amyris, Tolu Balsam, Peru Balsam, Vanilla, Benzoin, Vetiver, Peat, Cypriol, Cade, Orris Root, Castoreum, Indole, Musk
PERFUMER’S INSPIRATION (extended)
100 TWEEDS was intended in part to evoke bucolic memories of perfumer, Christian Rosenkreuz’ Bavarian study. Windows open to receive fresh heather and bitter herbs from the verdant splendour that is the end of summer blends with the aroma of his musty volumes of yellowed parchment and rich sweet tobacco notes from the humidor. Transported by this fragrance, Rosenkreuz could visit a time when the nights had become crisp and he would seek the warmth and comfort of his favorite tweed, settle into his over-sized wing chair that smelled of ancient woods and peat, and lose himself to the scent of paper, ink and vellum that lifted from the book on his lap by the crackling hearth.
CASE #432 from stephen dirkes on Vimeo.
About the Perfumer – CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ
Christian Rosenkreuz would always remember leaning down that morning to button her top button, the one he had made from the antler of a buck he himself had stalked.
He had caught the dry, herbaceous scent of his daughter’s alpine tweed and the green felt collar of her jacket. A breeze brought the smell of her freshly washed hair mixed with fragrant heather from the meadow outside across to him and he inhaled deeply.
Although it had been a sunny morning and promised to become an unusually warm late autumn day, Christian Rosenkreuz had forced his lovely daughter to wear her black tweed hunting jacket for her walk in the woods the day he lost her. Why? He could never recall.
Christian Rosenkreuz’ daughter was found dead in the woods (Schwarzwald, Bavaria), having been savaged by a brown bear. Self recrimination, loss and mourning led Rosenkreuz to loose his presence of mind (Christian was severely disabled by a rare form of mental unrest called “Catatonia Fleo” or the “Weeping Disease”, an extreme form of the melancholia “Spleen”). After a slow recovery (facilitated by a fragrance-based therapy utilizing his WALD perfume), Rosenkreuz became determined to master the bear that had ripped all that was pure and innocent from his world.
Christian Rosenkreuz’ obsession was fueled by a desire to both recapture memories of a daughter he loved and to wield power over the creature that took her from him. With this complex dynamic driving him, Rosenkreuz took many dark and twisted turns in developing 100 TWEEDS.
100 TWEEDS RESEARCH NOTES
Over the course of his experimentation, Rosenkreuz discovered that the scent of tweed has a profound ability to arouse the Bavarian brown bear. In pursuit of identifying, replicating and enhancing the ursine aphrodisiac aspect of the scent of tweed, Rosenkreuz set out to tincture 100 tweeds from around the world to arrive at a composite essence that was a distillate of all that was “Tweedness”.
Rosenkreuz began to gather, analyze and synthesize the herbs, barks, lichens, and roots that were used to impart the naked wool with colour and scent. He went on to develop 100 TWEEDS to be used to infused restraints and garments with which to stimulate his subjects and animate his mechanical devices with “Odic force”.
The fruit of many years of personal research and experimentation, 100 TWEEDS was ultimately made possible by Rosenkreuz’ partnership with E. Chevreuil and R. Komodo in Euphorium Brooklyn. Rudolph Komodo’s studies of fragrant pathogens and his ability to source exotic materials such as Gaharu Buayu (White Agarwood) and Javanese Vetiver complimented Rosenkreuz’ own work and resources.
Etienne Chevreuil’s more poetic, metaphoric and ultimately transcendental approach to perfumery enabled Rosenkreuz to embrace notions of mesmerism and sensual transcendentalism in the creation of 100 TWEEDS. Chevreuil’s development of “Tableaux Olfactif” or narratives in scent added a layer of refinement to Rosenkreuz’ early formulas.
Rosenkreuz came to understand the dark aspects of “Knowing – Becoming” when he was to learn that the nature of the bear could be found within himself. A labyrinth of intellectual constructs and rationalist epistemology, both focused and perverted his loss, mourning, and rage to become an outward expression of the gaze of his mind’s eye that in truth, looked ever inward.
100 TWEEDS Field Studies – Flora from stephen dirkes on Vimeo.
Notes on Fragrant Materials in 100 TWEEDS
Calamus – Rosenkreuz also explored the narcotic aspects of DMT rich, plant dye sources, such as Calamus. In medieval Europe, calamus was believed to be an ingredient in hallucinogenic “flying ointments” used by witches. The Cree Indians of Alberta have said they could consume calamus and “travel great distances without touching the ground.”
Walt Whitman’s 1855, “Leaves of Grass” contains 45 ballads under the title “Calamus.” The first edition was published on July 4, 1855 in Brooklyn, NY at the Fulton Street printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s. Rosenkreuz met Whitman through the Rome brothers in 1858 at the Euphorium Brooklyn and discussed calamus at length.
Whitman referred repeatedly to calamus and is said to have hidden descriptions of its mental effects in his poetry. In the Ayurvedic tradition, Vacha (calamus) is a ‘sattvic’ herb, which feeds and transmutes the sexual ‘kundalini’ energy. Calamus has been called called ‘the closest thing to a sex stimulant that nature has to offer”.
Heather – Rosenkreuz is said to have called the Rome brothers, “My Scottish Noses” as he was to regularly consult with them regarding the accuracy of his thistle, heather and heath tinctures and accords.
Rosenkreuz was also an annual recipient of the Rome brothers’ indulgently large tins of world famous scottish toffee and experimental nut brittles. Many a glass of what they would call “Liquid Peat” from the Isle of Isley was consumed during these fragrant testing sessions.
Guaiacwood – Rosenkreuz first encountered guaiacwood in Paraguay during his South American travels with Dr. Segfried Humboldt. Rosenkreuz writes of the encounter, “This heartwood contains the dry fragrance of age, history, and time itself. Introspective and enveloping is the warmth of a black tea and buttery richness grounded in the subtle vestiges of tar, ancient roots and embers.” – “The Great Journey of Knowing-Becoming” Humboldt-Rosenkreuz (1855)
Guaiacwood was traditionally used to prepare the body of the deceased for burial in ancient times and was also used to assuage deeply held grief.
Coumarin – Having a fragrance palette with the breadth to incorporate notes as wide and varied as sweet cream, coconut, almond, cherry, hay, and grass, coumarin is a plant substance found in various grasses and in great volume in tonka bean and deer’s tongue herb. The name coumarin originates from French word ‘coumarou’ which means ‘Tonka beans’.
The main aroma chemical in coumarin was isolated by A.Vogel as early as 1820, but the first laboratory synthesis of coumarin did not occur until 1862 and was derived from coal tar by C. Rosenkreuz (who gave his name to “the Rosenkreuz reaction” used to produce it).
It took several years to manufacture the molecule in an industrial scale at the “Reichenbach Fabriken”. (Formerly named the, “Reichenbach & Rosenkreuz Fabriken”, but by the time synthetic coumarin was manufactured, Rosenkreuz had already been removed from the company and expelled from Germany.)
Rosenkreuz’ experimentation with the synthesis of fragrance molecules was developed in tandem with his elaborations on a theory of “Odic Force” and was practically applied to the formulation of 100 TWEEDS. (see Case #432 “Studies in Re-Animation”) In believing that certain molecules had the ability to transfer energy or “life forces” to other materials, Rosenkreuz often incorporated a fragrant component to animate his bio-mechanical devices.
He went on to infuse many of his automaton or “Mecanique Sexual” devices with 100 TWEEDS in an effort to “animate” them.
Notes on Traditional Tweed Dyes
Tan – Peat soot
Reddish brown – Crotal
Brown – Acacia, Mimosa, Cutch
Dark brown – Black Currant
Dark green – Birch bark
Violet – Iris leaf
Grey – Iris root
Black – Oak bark, Cutch, Gall nut
Acacia/ Cutch (Acacia catechu), Brown crystalline resin distilled from acacia tree heartwood found worldwide. An important historical brown dye, used from 900 BC to present. Irish dyers mixed mimosa, acacia, and iron to produce a cutch dye.
Different species of acacia produce cassie, mimosa and gum arabic. The term ‘acacia’ is also used for a type of compound perfume, with an intense floral fragrance reminiscent of hawthorn and orange blossom. Numerous acacia species have been used for medicine and entheogens. Many species of acacia contain DMT and other tryptamines.
The leaves of Acacia campylacantha and the bark are used as a psychoactive additive. The gum of Acacia nilotica is fried in ghee and taken as an aphrodisiac. A flower infusion of Acacia farnesiana is used as an aphrodisiac and muscle relaxant. Acacia cornigera is a South American species used in the preparation of the Maya ritual drink known as balche. In Australia, a fine ash of Acacia is used for chewing with tobacco and other entheogens to aid in alkaloid release. Leeching psychoactive alkaloids out of the leaves achieved a visionary experience.
Lichens – Scots and Welsh dyers also refer to a lichen dye as ˜cutch”. Claret or Cudbear lichen is scraped off rocks and steeped in urine for three months, then taken out, made into cakes, and hung in bags to dry. The Crotal lichen was soaked for days in a warm solution, of what was called ‘home solution’ (urine). After soaking, it was boiled for hours over a peat fire at the side of a stream or loch. In Aberdeenshire, Scotland, most farms had a barrel (“litpig”) of putrid urine (“graith”) to boil woolen cloth in the urine-treated lichen mass until the desired color was obtained. The ammonia found in stale urine acted as a mordant to fix the dye to the cloth.
Although lichens had been recognized as organisms for quite some time, it was not until 1867, when Swiss botanist, Dr. Schwendener, proposed his dual theory of lichens, that lichens are a combination of fungi with algae or cyanobacteria, whereby the true nature of the lichen was identified. Although Rosenkreuz had similar notions in the 1850s from his study of lichens as fragrance and tweed dye, he went further to imply the two part chimera-like nature of the lichen was responsible for the abundant sexual energy inherent to the organism and at the heart of its powers as an aphrodisiac. When the complex relationships between pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts were finally identified and brought to a wider scientific community, Schwendener’s less fanciful hypothesis began to gain popularity and Rosenkreuz’ studies became disregarded and fell to the wayside of obscurity.
Gall nut (Cynips): Galls are tannin-laden plant protuberances created by an insect that drills into a woody growth to lay eggs. The plant defends itself by extruding a tannin-rich ‘nut’ or gall around the insect eggs. Gall introduces a bitter and bracing herbaceous note to the bouquet that is 100 TWEEDS.
“CASE #432” Official Premiere at La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival & four award nominations.
Snapshot portraits and first impressions at 100 TWEEDS First Encounters.
