Gosha Rubchinskiy Гоша Рубчинский

Buchu — a South African herb with a sharp, camphoraceous bite — is not a note you encounter often in fragrance, and here Alexis Dadier uses it as the opening statement for a 2016 Comme des Garçons collaboration with Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy. It hits with a green, almost medicinal clarity, joined by angelica's bitter anise edge and chamomile's powdery softness. The effect is clinical, slightly unsettling, like a scent that refuses to be pretty.

Then the base pulls in a different direction: styrax's balsamic sweetness, patchouli's damp earth, and Haitian vetiver's dry rootiness warm the composition from below. The tension between that sharp herbal top and the resinous, powdery base is the point. It sits squarely in the house's persistent anti-fashion stance — a fragrance designed to feel assembled rather than composed, as if the parts were found in different rooms and put together on purpose.