Watch Nick Knight’s new conceptual film for Floriental, Comme des Garçons’ new fragrance
Iconic fashion photographer Nick Knight has created a conceptual film for the Comme des Garçons’ 2015 fragrance Floriental, released to SHOWstudio, his video website, this week. Based on the concept of a flower that has no scent, the film and perfume both play with the idea of working out what else ‘floral’ could mean in a fragrance.
Knight, who has previously collaborated with designers such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, has this time partnered with Comme Des Garçons to create a deliciously arresting conceptual work.
Flowers have been a key interest of Knight’s; last year he published a photography book of plants from the Natural History Museum in London’s herbarium. Appealing to visuality rather than the sense of smell may be an odd choice to advertise a fragrance, but it works excellently in examining the use of the neutral-smelling cistus flower for the perfume.
The video stinks wonderfully of synesthesia, where flowers are shown in terms of dripping colour in order to describe this outlier in the floral family. Texture and colour are at the forefront in Knights work here. Fowers appear to melt into their component colours and fill large bell jars where the scent is captured.
'I was interested in evoking the relationship between painting and flowers,' explained Knight. 'In this film for Comme des Garçons I wanted to suggest that the flowers were transforming themselves into a painting: painting themselves.'
The film is under two minutes long and is a conceptual work which interprets the fragrance ’Floriental’ visually
The film depicts flowers melting into pools of colour, suggesting ’floral’ is much more than the typical scent associated with it
The film has been released this week and the perfume earlier this year. This marks another key collaboration of Nick Knight, who has worked with a strong range of designers and brands
INFORMATION
See the video at Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio
-
Reimagining roses: experimental takes on rose perfumesRose perfumes – the most traditional of fragrances – are being given an unconventional edge by niche and big-name brands
-
This experimental summer perfume smells like sunscreenCalled Sunscreen, this new summer perfume from Comme des Garçons and LA streetwear label ERL smells like a beach party in a bottle
-
Byredo and filmmaker Fenn O’Meally on identity and mixed emotionsByredo founder Ben Gorham on new fragrance launch, Mixed Emotions, and his collaboration with filmmaker Fenn O’Meally
-
Commes des Garçons teases out the softer side of concrete with its latest fragrance -
Coming up roses: Comme des Garçons creates Grace Coddington perfume -
Rei Kawakubo’s favourite tree inspires new Comme des Garçons perfume
