WORK:SPACE – ARPA STUDIO

Design

Baranabé Fillon has been creating perfumes for years. Behind the scenes he is known as the nose for Aesop, the fabled Australian skincare line, but he also has been quietly working on his own brand, ARPA, where he aims to elevate the olfactory experience to an interdisciplinary phenomenon by collaborating with artists and musicians. Fillon’s signature will be familiar to anyone who’s ever stepped into an Aesop store – there is an earthy sophistication in his scents, and an incredible amount of storytelling. At ARPA he takes it to the next level, not only through the scents, but through their packaging and installations. No wonder he calls ARPA the Institute for Synesthesia.

Ann Demeulemeester on Her New Perfume

Fashion

It seems rare these days that an independent designer launches a perfume. They now tend to come either from niche perfumery houses, corporate brands, or legacy fashion brands that are not owned by beauty conglomerates. Which makes the new Ann Demeulemeester perfume, titled simply “A,” an event in its own right, not to mention the fact that it gives Demeulemeester’s friends another reason to revisit her work.

COMME DES GARÇONS LAUNCHES ZERO PERFUME

Retail

Zero, launched in June of this year, is the newest addition to the venerable stable of rule-breaking Comme des Garçons perfumes (see our feature about the Comme des Garçons Parfums universe here). As its name implies, Zero is about reduction, subtraction, minimalism. (It also happens to be one of our favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs, and…

Perfumer H Opens Paris Boutique

Design, Retail

If you are in town for Men’s Fashion Week in Paris (or any other time), and in search of a unique fragrance or a candle, you must pay a visit to the newly opened Perfumer H boutique in Marais. Perfumer H is one of the most unique independent perfumers out there. Lyn Harris’s passion for…

Aesop’s Nose Barnabé Fillion on its New Perfume Range

Culture

Recently Aesop released a trio of new perfumes called Othertopia, inspired by the relationship between the sea and the shore and the rich olfactory experience that comes with it. We caught up with Barnabé Fillion, Aesop’s artistic Nose in order to delve further into the process of creating these three new imaginative scents. What was…