The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Coquillete runs a contest, open calls for emerging talent to submit fragrance concepts. One winning entry came from Luigi Marigliano, a young perfumer with a point of view. His concept: a scent about the long game. The ones who start from the bottom, fight for something real, and arrive at something worth having. The house named it Underdog, and that name is the whole brief. It's not about elegance or luxury or heritage. It's about the person who wasn't supposed to make it, and did anyway. The fragrance opens with bright, assertive energy, citrus and green notes that feel determined, almost restless. There's a rawness to the top that sets expectations differently.
The structure mirrors the name. An opening built from citrus and white wine, that fermented, slightly tart quality that reads more like a natural wine than a perfume. Grapefruit adds bite, bergamot adds lift, and the wine note itself is unusual enough to give people pause. But the heart is where it earns its keep: Turkish rose grounded by frankincense and benzoin, warmed with ylang-ylang and tonka bean. Not a delicate floral, a resinous, slightly spiced heart that moves toward complexity rather than prettiness. The base is where the story finishes: oud, cedarwood, vetiver, tobacco, and a touch of ambergris. Smoky, woody, animalic without being aggressive. This is the part you wait for, and it's worth the wait.
The evolution
The opening announces itself with grapefruit's citrus bite and a wine note that arrives unexpectedly, sour, fermented, like natural wine in a glass. The bergamot softens it slightly, but that vine quality arrives unexpectedly, bringing a tart, alive quality to the first act. Some people reach for their wrists here. It's fine. Keep waiting. Around the 30-minute mark, the florals arrive, Turkish rose and ylang-ylang, but not the powdery kind. These are grounded by frankincense and benzoin, warm and resinous, moving the scent toward something spiced rather than sweet. The transition isn't dramatic. It's like watching someone stop performing and start being themselves. By hour two, the drydown takes over. Akigalawood, cedarwood, vetiver, smoky woods that smell like the end of a long day. A whisper of tobacco. Ambergris that adds salt and animal warmth without being dirty.
Cultural impact
Underdog arrives as a counterpoint to much of what niche perfumery has offered recently. The white wine opening is genuinely unusual, the kind of choice that alienates as many people as it attracts. But for those who understand it, the appeal is immediate and lasting. The initial burst of sourness gives way to something warmer, and the journey between those two points feels earned rather than constructed. There's an authenticity to the way this fragrance moves from first spray to final drydown that mirrors its name.
