The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
A collaboration with London's Serpentine Galleries resulted in a bespoke fragrance, a wearable translation of their unique position in the urban landscape. Situated in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, the galleries occupy a rare space where manicured parkland meets the city's edge. Artist Tracey Emin designed the bottle and box, extending the institution's commitment to collaborative art beyond the gallery walls. Perfumer Emilie Bevierre-Coppermann was tasked with translating that tension into scent. The Serpentine Galleries aren't a quiet retreat, they're a confrontation between cultivated nature and city infrastructure, and the fragrance needed to hold both without resolving either into the other.
What makes Serpentine work is that it refuses the easy way out. Galbanum brings its characteristic bitter-sharp quality, the smell of green stalks bruised rather than trimmed, while grass adds a just-cut juiciness beneath. The asphalt note is not metaphorical. It is warm mineral, the kind of heat that rises from a sun-exposed footpath in summer, and it arrives early enough to keep the freshness from becoming pastoral.
The evolution
The opening announces itself in bright, electric green. Galbanum leads with its sharp, bitter freshness, immediate and slightly astringent, like cutting through the air on a cool morning. Grass follows immediately, adding a juicy, slightly sweet quality beneath. The asphalt is already there, waiting beneath the surface, a mineral warmth that grounds the brightness without competing with it. In the heart phase, the aldehydes make themselves known, that waxy, almost candlelit shimmer that makes the greens luminous. Galbanum persists with its bitter-green edge. Iris leaf adds a quiet powdery complexity, barely floral, more like the smell of the plant's green stem than its root. Ozonic notes keep a slight atmospheric tension throughout, the smell of open air moving over a city park. The drydown is where Serpentine becomes most honest. Smoked cedar and guaiac wood introduce a warm, resinous quality, not quite smoke, not quite earth, but something that holds both. Labdanum adds a dry, slightly leathery warmth. Benzoin rounds everything with a faint sweetness.
Cultural impact
Serpentine exists at the intersection of perfume and conceptual art, challenging the assumption that fragrance must be pleasing above all else. Comme des Garçons has long operated on the premise that smell is a valid medium for intellectual provocation, and Serpentine is a direct expression of that philosophy. By centering galbanum and asphalt alongside grass, the fragrance refuses the comfort of fruit or sweetness in favor of something that reads more like urban landscape than perfume bottle.
