Something I'll like to share (blog related not personal)

So I’m sat looking through my emails trying to get organised and as usual I’m reading my business of fashion newsletters. All have interesting articles yet there is one in particular that really struck me as interesting today, and I feel that I need to share aspects from it with you.

I’m now well and truly deep in research for my second and final summative brief of first year, looking at all areas on the fragrance sector; unisex, men’s grooming, ethical fragrance ect (there’s so many areas that make up this sector it was hard to know what direction to go in first) yet this article managed to draw to my attention something that I have not yet looked into.

The pairing of streetwear and scent, both are huge trends so thinking about it, it only seems right that this would be an ideal pairing an there is one brand making waves with this, Comme des Garcons-operated label Gosha Rubchinskiy.

Rubchinskiy’s brand is a skate-inflected labels, featuring key, iconic items of the trend such as t-shirts, sweatshirts and sneakers. Many consumers view the brand as a physical mark of affiliation and catalysts of community experience. The desire for these products is compared to buzz that is in the air before an artist drops their latest album, in my opinion this is more of a lifestyle rather than a trend mainly because the typical consumer for this is very faith and true to who they are.

But now the brand has ventured into a whole new area, that is still true to its style.

Teaming up with Adrian Joffe president of Comme des Garcons who operates the label have revealed that they are getting ready to release a scent they are calling the brands ‘new single’ inspired by the streets of Moscow.

“They don’t want to use Armani or something. They want something closer to their culture,” explains Rubchinskiy, referring to his fanbase. “The new single from Gosha is perfume. Something we use. One more reason to go to the store and collect something.”

With this new path for the brand they have managed to find a gap in this key trend that not many other label has currently look at investing into yet, streetwear is mainly associated with logoed t-shirts with only a handful of fragrances available that are linked to the style, with the designer describe the scent as being inspired by “young people hanging together, skating together – concrete and skateboards”.

With this inspiration carried through to the packaging of the brand, where they feature a typically classic glass bottle with not spectacular design that we so often see with fragrances but instead have given a nod to the skateboarding history of the brand and style with a wooden top representing a skateboard deck. Through to visual elements that represent the fragrance with a photography based book named ‘the perfume book’, that has been created to help communicate the concept behind the fragrance.

“We need to have something visual to help explain and [communicate] the image,” said Rubchinskiy. “I am a fan of objects. I like to buy books; photobooks and art books. So I thought, if we do perfume, let’s do a book. I think it’s good to have something tangible.”

Overall I think that this scent that the brand have created follows and amazing concept, that is real and fluent through out every aspect, they have not strayed away from their core values, constantly focusing on their consumer and the journey that they will see and go through with the brand.