WHAT WOMEN WANT
Aquick scan of social feeds (or ELLE staffers’ desks) will tell you that Byredo ranks highly on the cool spectrum. The scents are unique but wearable, the names Instagramready (Gypsy Water, Flowerhead, etc) and the packaging simple – clear glass bottles with glossy black lids and barely there labels – which has all helped make the Swedish fragrance house one of the world’s most recognisable beauty brands. But how does founder Ben Gorham, an artist and basketball player turned perfumer, predict what his global audience wants, before they even know themselves? We caught up with him to find out.
MORE THAN EVER I FIND WOMEN ARE USING FRAGRANCE AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSING THEIR PERSONALITY. It’s no longer about wearing the popular fragrance as a form of inclusion. Rather, we see women gravitate to more extreme fragrances because they value being unique.
I THINK OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE CHOSEN BYREDO BECAUSE IT’S QUITE SPECIFIC. We try to have a very democratic approach to what fragrance should be. We are grateful for the dialogue we have been able to have with customers over the past 11 years. It’s really about listening. ORIGINALLY THE PACKAGING WAS TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. The ingredients were the most important aspect of the product. But even if it’s simple, we spent a lot of time refining them. We live in a world of trends and I’m glad that we inspire other people and other brands to follow a direction that was very important for us.
I FOUND FLORAL NOTES QUITE DIFFICULT IN THE BEGINNING. It took me few years to finish a true floral fragrance in the Byredo line – I felt floral notes related to traditional fragrance. Since then, I’ve built an appreciation and I think Byredo has been able to develop its own distinct approach to creating floral fragrance.
I’VE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED WITH WOODY ACCORDS. Byredo’s new scent Velvet Haze is a very specific patchouli that makes up a lot of its character.
TRAVEL HAS ALWAYS BEEN A BIG INFLUENCE. Over the past few years I’ve been to California quite a few times because I began climbing. Even though Velvet Haze is tied to an abstract idea, the vibe is about being in California and the way I imagine that place in the late ’60s after reading and hearing about some movements in music and culture.