Comme des Garçons Wrote the 'Anti-Perfume' Bible
In 1994, Comme des Garçons released its debut fragrance, an eponymously titled scent that turned the conventions of perfumery on its head. It was spicy, medicinal, and completely overpowering — the complete opposite of the fresh, aquatic spritzes that reigned supreme during the '90s.
Over the next 30 years, Comme des Garçons would go on to expand its collection of "anti-perfumes" to a total of 100 fragrances, including collaborations with the likes of Pharrell, Stüssy, and ERL. Now, the Japanese brand's olfactory oeuvre is catalogued in a new coffee table book, aptly titled Comme des Garçons Parfums 1994-2025, a Book by Dino Simonett.
In 256 pages, publisher Simonett & Baer traces the evolution of Comme des Garçons' perfume collection, which is still overseen by creative director Christian Astuguevieille and has managed to remain refreshingly subversive to this day.
A press release by editor Olivia Singer reminds readers of the tagline that accompanied the brand's first fragrance: "A perfume that works like a medicine and behaves like a drug." It's a provocative mantra that has come to shape all of Comme des Garçons' scents which, as Singer writes, draw from unorthodox smells like "dust burning on a hot light bulb, photocopier toner, the metallic taste of a battery."
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Comme des Garçons Parfums, the brand has also unveiled a new scent: Odeur 10, the fourth addition to its ongoing Odeur series. According to Astuguevieille, the latest is inspired by the cleanliness of hydrogen peroxide, a product that's "less commonly used in our time, with a slightly nostalgic aspect."
Odeur 10 and Comme des Garçons Parfums 1994-2025 hit shelves at Dover Street Parfums Market on December 5. Smells like fragrance history!
