According to London-based fragrance expert Brooke Belldon, the perfume website Sainte Cellier offers fragrances that she has carefully selected “for dreamers and deep thinkers, deviants and disagreeable characters.” (I think I fit into two of those categories; possibly three, depending whom you ask!)

But Sainte Cellier is not only a retail operation—it also includes an online journal featuring highly personal reflections on fragrance. When Brooke invited me to submit an essay on a topic of my choice, I decided to send her something I’d recently drafted about fashion designer Lee “Alexander” McQueen and his first perfume, Kingdom. Like many things I write, it has its source in an experience that got its claws into me many years ago.

You can read it here.

Illustration by @massimoalfaioli & @marcomariascarici for Saint Cellier; please do not re-use without crediting the artists Massimo Alfaioli and Marco Maria Scarici (and Sainte Cellier, of course).