Avant-Garden Lab

Oliver Valverde began making fragrances in Madrid without formal perfumery training, reasoning that ignorance of industry conventions was itself a creative asset. His first brand, Oliver & Co., went quiet after several years; when it re-emerged it had been renamed Avant-Garden Lab — a label that signals both the avant-garde and the laboratory, spaces defined by experiment rather than predetermined result. Valverde draws his raw material list from an eclectic catalogue: rare naturals, synthetic molecules, and what he describes as the visual grammar of dadaism, graphic design, and outer space. Fragrances often carry typographically coded names — J4SM1NE x CAL4MUS, for instance — that double as synesthetic transcriptions, collapsing the gap between the written character and the olfactory one. The brand opened a boutique in Madrid where customers can encounter the full collection in person. As a self-taught creator working without the safety net of a house nose or contracted perfumer, Valverde occupies an unusual corner of Spanish niche perfumery — one more concerned with provocations than with market positioning. The house remains small and deliberately opaque, releasing new work at its own pace.