By Daily Planet Slaves
The “Essence of Santa Monica,” a new designer fragrance will be sold for the first time this week in major department stores and fashion boutiques across the country.
When tested on local subjects on the Promenade, many agreed that it smelled like a mixture of back alley urine, sea salt and cigarette smoke with a hint of old trash dumpster, homeless body odor, human feces and bad breath.
Stephen Stylish, an entrepreneur and 30-year resident of downtown Santa Monica, has been working on the fragrance for nearly a decade. Stylish has worked with fragrantologist Jean Franco le Pierre, who has captured the scents of cities like Aspen, Santa Fe and Paris, for several years to perfect the essence of our city for mass production.
According to le Pierre, the new cologne will be for men and women, an idea popularized by Calvin Klein’s ONE.
“It is the mixture of the sea, air, wind and city,” according to la Peirre. Meanwhile, shots rang out in the Pico neighborhood.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2004. Read the original PDF.