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.
Of course no self-respecting creator is complete without a workspace. ARPA’s main studio is located in Pantin, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris. When we visited it early last year we were impressed by the mid-century aesthetic, in part inspired by Carlo Scarpa’s Olivetti shop in Venice. That olive color of an old typewriter is predominant in a subdued palette that also includes hints of pewter and white.
The studio houses a temperature-controlled perfume room clad in mustard-colored tiles, where Fillon does most of his work. And no space Fillon touches is complete without a serious sound system (the first iteration of ARPA perfumes comes with a series of records), whose main speaker was salvaged from an old movie theater.
The space was codesigned by Fillon and the Parisian architect Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi.
