Comme des Garçons has never followed the rule in regard to fashion and fragrance. Established in 1969 in Tokyo by its founder Rei Kawakubo, the brand is characterized by avant-garde designs that use unconventional beauty standards. However, what most people are unaware of is that Comme des Garçons has also turned around the world of perfume – it has made perfume a kind of art. Every scent is not just an obscured odor of a nice smell; it is an idea, a narrative, a declaration, a blend of fashion and fine art.

The Vision The Fragrance of Comme des Garcans

In 1994, the Comme des Garcons perfume line was introduced and it is a new step in the creative universe of the brand. Together with perfumer Mark Buxton, Rei Kawakubo was interested in the smell that would not appeal to the masses but would evoke a feeling. Comme des Garcans perfumes tend to investigate the bizarre, industrial, and abstract scents such as tar, ink, metal, smoke and even dust as opposed to sugar or floral comfort.

This unconventional strategy has seen the brand emerge as a distinctive brand among the traditional luxury houses. In a world where most brands tried to come up with pretty perfumes, Comme des Garcans tried to find the beauty in the imperfection and chaos the very essence of art itself.

Award-winning Fragrances that are Re-writing the Rules of Perfumery.

Comme des Garçons Original (1994)

The first perfume established the mood of everything later. It starts with spicy, woody aroma of cardamom, cinnamon and clove with the smattering of amber and incense. The smell is also very inviting and enigmatic, and it represents the philosophy of beauty of the brand as a contradiction.

Comme des Garçons 2 (1999)

CDG 2 is a cult favorite, and it was based on ink and calligraphy. The combination of its metallic aldehydes, incense, and magnolia forms a paradoxical smell – cold, at the same time, warm, synthetic and natural. The silver bottle is mirrored and is used to reflect light like some modern sculpture, which supports the artistic idea being applied in it.

Wonderwood (2010)

To those who like woody fragrances that tend to be grounding, Wonderwood provides notes of sandalwood, cedar, cypress, and vetiver. It is an experiment with wood of every kind of texture raw, polished, and smoky and therefore one of the most wearable and artistic scents in the collection.

Black (2013)

Introduced in a limited edition, Black is a dark and resin-based fragrance with black pepper, incense, leather, and birch tar. It was designed to pay homage to the iconic aesthetic of the brand minimal, black and white, and unashamedly bold.

Artistic Philosophy Perfume as a Medium.

Comme des Garcon considers fragrance as a piece of canvas to explore its creativity. All the scents defy our notions of what perfume is expected to smell like. It is not intended to attract everybody but to arouse an emotion and interest.

This aesthetic attitude perfectly fits the fashion design principles of Kawakubo, which are deconstruction, abstraction, and experimentation. Her perfumes challenge the concept of luxury just as her clothes challenge the concept of beauty. The result? A range that is appealing to not just perfume enthusiasts, but also artists, designers and other imaginative minds that value scent as a form of conceptual art.

Team work and Creativity.

Comme des Garcns have also partnered with several of the most innovative brands and people around the globe, such as Monocle, Pharrell Williams, and Nike, to create exclusive perfumes. Every partnership remains faithful to the philosophy of the brand – the combination of unexpected materials and artistic stories.

Another collaboration on the brand, with perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, resulted in the design of Comme des Garcon Perfume Concrete (2017), inspired by real concrete resin. Having the aroma of rose oxide, sandalwood, and musk, Concrete records the tension between organic and industrial one more illustration of how CDG transforms the banal materials into the art.