The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Hollow arrived in 2015 as Corey Newcombe's take on two very different reference points: Serge Lutens' De Profundis, and the inspiration behind Scandinavian ice wines. The first is gothic, dark, and soil-driven. The second involves grapes harvested in frozen conditions, concentrating their sugars and flavors into something distinctive. A blistering South Australian summer heatwave shaped the development, pushing Newcombe to build something green, wet, and mossy that could hold its own under extreme conditions. Violet and blackcurrant bud were added to the composition, moving it away from conventional green chypre territory and into something more unusual, cold, tart, and glistening at the edges.
The soil tincture is the structural surprise here. It's a cold, mineral, almost metallic impression of wet earth, the kind you get walking through a forest ten minutes after rain. Violet leaf reinforces this with a green, slightly bitter, slightly crushed-leaf character that references the plant rather than the flower. Together, these two materials do something oakmoss alone cannot: they make the mossiness feel earned, organic, and genuinely cold rather than polished or perfumey. The blackcurrant bud adds a tart, unripe berry note that cuts through the earthiness and keeps the opening from going heavy too early.
The evolution
The opening lands cold and immediate. Bergamot gives brightness but doesn't warm anything, the overall impression is ozonic, sharp, and slightly astringent. Blackcurrant bud arrives within minutes, tart and unripe, while juniper keeps the whole thing leaning into green-bitter territory. This phase lasts the first hour, give or take. The heart is where the soil asserts itself. Violet leaf and cyclamen create a stillness, almost eerie, over the wet mineral earth of the soil tincture. The tartness from the blackcurrant begins to recede as the composition settles into something darker and more contemplative. By hour two or three, the oakmoss takes command of the drydown. Cedar and vetiver build a dense, mossy, dark-wood foundation that lingers for hours. It's not sweet. It's not soft.
Cultural impact
Hollow draws from De Profundis but builds something louder, greener, and more oakmoss-forward than its reference point. Wearers who connect with it tend to do so intensely, finding in its bold green chypre structure something that resonates on a deeper level. The fragrance represents a commitment to composition over trend, to the unusual over the expected.
