November 8–15, 2001

naked city

Spinning Scents

A new cologne for the DJ in all of us.

by Sean O’Neal

Spray for play: DJ Cologne promises to make DJs irresistible.

The warning on Allen Mrachek’s website says it all: "DJ Cologne cannot be held responsible for the extensive play you will get from wearing this scent."

From any meat-market club on Delaware Avenue to a low-key rave where the DJs roll in and try to pick up "little raver bitches," an inimitable and near-sexual cologne "inspired by the energetic vibe that lives in the club scene" may be just what the doctor ordered. Can fashionable fragrance and club culture go hand in hand? If you think not, then there’s one guy that can put you in your place.

Mrachek, 32, of Havre De Grace, Md., used to run a club night called "A & B Jams" at the Underground Pub in Elkton, Md., where he hosted local superstar DJs like Nigel Richards, Michelle Sainte and Anton Chasm. Ravers and clubbers would travel from Philly, Baltimore and D.C. to dance and vibe on the intimate, energetic club atmosphere that thrived practically in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Due to noise complaints, the club had to close down in 1998.

But this didn’t stop Mrachek. With a deep passion for electronic dance music and a well-practiced understanding of rave and club life, he quickly moved on from running a unique club night to releasing a unique kind of fragrance: DJ Cologne, which comes in an authentic-looking miniature DJ coffin (a carrying case for turntables). Each bottle of cologne has a sticker of a Technics turntable with slipmats that read "DJ Cologne" and a cardboard mixer in between, and it’s all made by hand by Mrachek himself. At first, you might expect a raunchy or foul aroma when contemplating the fragrance of sweaty clubs. But actually, as promised, the cologne tenders a "clean, fresh scent."

"I’ve always been into the fashion industry," Mrachek says, "and ever since I’ve been in high school, I’ve always said, ‘Man, I’d love to have my own cologne.’ … And I remember one night, we were carrying the coffin box [into the club] and it just came to me… I saw a vision, and it just went from there."

Once the concept was nailed down, it took a couple of years to do the appropriate research. "There’s a company out of New Jersey," Mrachek explains, "where there’s a chemist that does a lot of fragrances and oils, like for coffee beans and the little trees that you hang in your car…. So I told him what I was looking for and what kind of scene I was in, the age group, and he started making me all these fragrances that had their own identities."

Once he obtained a handful of scents from the chemist, Mrachek looked for the perfect place to run a few field tests and narrow it down to just one fragrance. His choice? The Winter Music Conference in Miami, of course. "I took seven fragrances that I enjoyed down to the conference two years ago, and I had people smell them. Then I picked the best one — [I waited until] somebody said, ‘This doesn’t smell like anything [else],’ and that’s when I went with it."

DJ Cologne is advertised for men, but, according to Mrachek, it’s actually a unisex fragrance, though he acknowledges the difficulty in marketing a unisex fragrance to your average cologne-wearing, macho manly man. Mrachek plans to come out with DJ Girl after New Year’s. Men get a box with cologne and aftershave, and the women will get lotion with their DJ Girl.

DJ Cologne is currently available in parts of the East Coast, including at 612 Clothing. [Disclosure: This writer works for 612’s parent store, 611 Records.] It was featured in DJ culture magazines like Mixer, Urb and, more recently, Vibe, and Mrachek has started getting orders from clothing stores in Chicago, Tampa and even Maine. The miniature DJ coffin, which includes two 3.4 ounce bottles of cologne, sells for $65, and Mrachek is now offering a Christmas special: one 3.4 ounce bottle of cologne and a T-shirt for $30. Pretty soon, DJs and clubgoers from all over the country will be rocking the new, exotic fragrance — and perhaps noticing themselves gettin’ a little extra booty.

"When I wear it and when my friends wear it," Mrachek contends, "we go into a club and a lot of the ladies get excited. They always say, ‘What are you wearing?’ And when my friend says, ‘Allen’s cologne,’ they’ll say [in disbelief], ‘No, seriously, what are you wearing?’"

For more information, visit www.dj-cologne.com, e-mail djcologne2000@email.com or call 410-652-8815. Check out Sean O’Neal’s field tests of DJ Cologne.