Black in name, black in nature: black pepper, incense, leather, licorice, birch tar. The effect is tough but comforting — a campfire shot through with sparks of nutmeg, and more than a hint of gasoline-infused motorbike saddle.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is the scent of someone arriving with their coat still carrying cold air and smoke from outside: close, deliberate, and a little untamed. It suits intimate spaces where its tarry leather and pepper can unfold without being smothered, leaving a dry, heated trail rather than a polished aura.
How to wear
Best in cool weather and at night, when its smoke, pepper and leather can breathe without turning harsh. Apply lightly at first; two sprays are usually enough, as the birch tar and incense can project strongly and linger with a dry, charred finish on skin.
Who it’s for
For wearers who like dark, smoky, mineral-leaning scents with a raw edge, and who prefer character over smoothness. It will appeal to people drawn to incense, leather, pepper and tar, especially if they enjoy fragrances that feel austere, artistic and a little dangerous.
Release year
2013
The nose
Guillaume Flavigny is the perfumer behind Black Comme des Garçons Eau de Toilette, a fragrance that fits his taste for bold contrasts and tightly edited structures. In the perfume world, he is associated with modern compositions that feel graphic rather than decorative, often using a few forceful materials to create a clear, memorable silhouette. For Black, that approach suits Comme des Garçons perfectly: the scent is spare but intense, built around smoke, pepper, leather and tar rather than a conventional polished accord. Flavigny gives the fragrance its raw, industrial energy while keeping it wearable enough to read as a finished composition rather than a concept sketch.
Collaborators
Rei Kawakubo shaped the house’s non-conformist vision, and Black extends that deconstructed, anti-commercial mindset into scent: black as a positive force, stripped of ornament and made deliberately uncompromising. Christian Astuguevieille, who oversees the fragrance world of Comme des Garçons, helped frame that subversive creative direction.
Comme Des Garcons’s story
Comme des Garçons treats perfume as an extension of its radical design language: abstract, asymmetric, and resistant to easy categorisation. The house favours originality over prettiness, often working with pared-back formulas and unexpected materials to create scents that feel conceptual, modern and slightly unsettling in the best way.
Black’s concept
Black was first conceived in 2009 as a response to a period of economic gloom, with the colour black recast as something affirmative rather than negative. The 2013 Eau de Toilette revisits that idea with a sharper, smokier profile, turning pepper, incense, leather and birch tar into a scent that feels like embers, machinery and ritual all at once.
Extra info
Black was created as a regeneration of Comme des Garçons’ original 2009 Black concept. Its 2013 Eau de Toilette form is known for a strikingly spare but forceful note set, and it has become a reference point for smoky, campfire-like niche fragrances.
Black in name, black in nature: black pepper, incense, leather, licorice, birch tar. The effect is tough but comforting — a campfire shot through with sparks of nutmeg, and more than a hint of gasoline-infused motorbike saddle.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is the scent of someone arriving with their coat still carrying cold air and smoke from outside: close, deliberate, and a little untamed. It suits intimate spaces where its tarry leather and pepper can unfold without being smothered, leaving a dry, heated trail rather than a polished aura.
How to wear
Best in cool weather and at night, when its smoke, pepper and leather can breathe without turning harsh. Apply lightly at first; two sprays are usually enough, as the birch tar and incense can project strongly and linger with a dry, charred finish on skin.
Who it’s for
For wearers who like dark, smoky, mineral-leaning scents with a raw edge, and who prefer character over smoothness. It will appeal to people drawn to incense, leather, pepper and tar, especially if they enjoy fragrances that feel austere, artistic and a little dangerous.
Release year
2013
The nose
Guillaume Flavigny is the perfumer behind Black Comme des Garçons Eau de Toilette, a fragrance that fits his taste for bold contrasts and tightly edited structures. In the perfume world, he is associated with modern compositions that feel graphic rather than decorative, often using a few forceful materials to create a clear, memorable silhouette. For Black, that approach suits Comme des Garçons perfectly: the scent is spare but intense, built around smoke, pepper, leather and tar rather than a conventional polished accord. Flavigny gives the fragrance its raw, industrial energy while keeping it wearable enough to read as a finished composition rather than a concept sketch.
Collaborators
Rei Kawakubo shaped the house’s non-conformist vision, and Black extends that deconstructed, anti-commercial mindset into scent: black as a positive force, stripped of ornament and made deliberately uncompromising. Christian Astuguevieille, who oversees the fragrance world of Comme des Garçons, helped frame that subversive creative direction.
Comme Des Garcons’s story
Comme des Garçons treats perfume as an extension of its radical design language: abstract, asymmetric, and resistant to easy categorisation. The house favours originality over prettiness, often working with pared-back formulas and unexpected materials to create scents that feel conceptual, modern and slightly unsettling in the best way.
Black’s concept
Black was first conceived in 2009 as a response to a period of economic gloom, with the colour black recast as something affirmative rather than negative. The 2013 Eau de Toilette revisits that idea with a sharper, smokier profile, turning pepper, incense, leather and birch tar into a scent that feels like embers, machinery and ritual all at once.
Extra info
Black was created as a regeneration of Comme des Garçons’ original 2009 Black concept. Its 2013 Eau de Toilette form is known for a strikingly spare but forceful note set, and it has become a reference point for smoky, campfire-like niche fragrances.