A player’s game “is very much a metaphor for his style,” said trainer to some of the NBA’s biggest stars, Idan Ravin, in a recent interview with Style.com. As it turns out, a man’s moves on the court are also reflective of his fragrance profile—just ask Byredo founder Ben Gorham, who recently teamed up with Russell Westbrook, the point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, to create a scent simply dubbed Westbrook (a Barneys exclusive). “With this fragrance, I focused on a duality that I found in Russell’s character. The first part of it was really related to him as an athlete and what I’d seen and experienced in terms of him playing basketball, which was this immensely fierce competitor,” said Gorham. “On a personal level, he was very humble, very soft-spoken, very interested, and very creative. So to me, there was, I wouldn’t say a contradiction, but a contrast. And with fragrance, to capture that contrast was interesting.” Naturally, the unisex blend is twofold: The bergamot jin accord and osmanthus at the top lend a burst of freshness, while the middle and base notes—black violet, tobacco leaves, and Haitian vetiver—are bold, grounding, and unremitting. “I like a clean, fresh scent, but also something that is unique,” explained Westbrook during a break between menswear shows in Paris. “It is also important to me that the cologne stays with you throughout the day and the scent doesn’t fade.” (A characteristic that echoes the athlete’s relentless energy from tip-off to the final buzzer.)
The partnership between the two Barneys boys—Gorham chose the department store to debut his range of fragrances in 2008, and Westbrook collaborated with the company to produce a line called Westbrook XO Barneys New York—was a seamless one. “Ben and I just hit it off from the beginning,” said Westbrook, who cited Sunday and Bal D’Afrique as two of his go-to scents prior to the project. “He used to play basketball, and we talked about that and got along really well.” (The 6'5" Gorham played the sport professionally in Europe for a period of time before transitioning to perfume.) The two Renaissance men undoubtedly devised an eau that works whether you’re driving to the basket, designing a collection, or sitting front-row at Givenchy. “You can wear it with anything: hanging out with your friends, out for a nice dinner—it works at every occasion,” said Westbrook. We imagine it also jives just as well with his leather pants as it does his jersey.
Russell Westbrook Eau de Parfum, $350, barneys.com
http://www.style.com/beauty/nails-and-fragrance/2015/russell-westbrook-byredo-cologne
@ them thinking nikkas bout to pay that much for some Russell Westbrook cologne
"It might actually work with the NYC hipsters".
