Comme des Garçons is the universe (the word brand falls short) created by Rei Kawakubo in 1973. Since then, the world's most exclusive catwalks have welcomed her creations and she has been called the pioneer of anti-fashion. Her foray into the world of fragrances follows the same approach as her arrival onto the fashion scene: doing things that haven't yet been done. Since the birth of Comme des Garçons Parfums in 1994, Kawakubo's heterodoxy has been launching fragrances that have become true cult objects.

The challenge was threefold: how to create the visual standard of Comme des Garçons fragrances by taking into account the unusual nature of their bottles; how to convey the essence of a concept translated into aromas without being able to smell it; and how to organise the fragrance portfolio so that the user knows it well while also creating a positive user experience that responds to the brand spirit.

A bottle is still a bottle when you look at it. 

But a Comme des Garçons perfume bottle isn't still a bottle when you photograph it. 

The materials used to make these perfume bottles, their finishes, the precision of their design, etc. are a true challenge for a photographer: the need to battle with sparkles, avoid inopportune reflections, convey the textures in the photo, thoroughly control the light, give authenticity to the bottle while idealising it, respect the love for detail all over these luxury bottles, edit the photo pixel by pixel, and much more.  

After working long and hard, we got the perfect result and then added design elements to provide graphic packaging to all the fragrances within the Comme des Garçons Parfums portfolio: the images we created became the 'official photos' of the fragrances for any future creation.

One of these fragrances is called Black Pepper. Photographing its bottle was a challenge. But translating its scent into video to create the product reveal wasn't far behind. We decided to use synaesthesia and play with the senses to trigger the sensation of smelling the fragrance through images, sound and movement: a black opaque liquid emulsifies from big black particles, with its movement and its imagery reflecting the essence of the fragrance. This liquid, as if Bruce Lee had created it while saying “be water, my friend”, takes on the form of the Black Pepper bottle to end this product presentation video. 

What's more, we used the concept of this piece, its art direction and its plasticity to create the visual for Comme des Garçons Parfums to advertise Black Pepper in any type of format and medium.

All fragrances in general can be divided into four main olfactory families (with their corresponding subfamilies): floral, oriental, fresh and woody.

We took this classification and created an interactive digital experience that let the user playfully discover the entire brand portfolio, identify the olfactory family of each fragrance, and learn about all its nuances and ingredients. 

The Scent Hunter, as this tool-experience was called, also immersed users into the universe and the inspiration behind each Comme des Garçons fragrance: the concept that governs which sensation each drop should trigger.