BYREDO PARFUMS And Ben Gorham

"My mother is from India, and my dad is half Scottish, half French Canadian. I was born in Sweden—I lived there as a kid, and then I grew up in a few places. I spent a good portion of the time in Toronto, Canada. So I guess my accent is Swedish…or gypsy.

Standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall and covered in tattoos, perfumer Ben Gorham doesn't strike one as the conventional type. Then again, neither are his fragrances. I had heard about him in Sweden. He was living in New York, a French guy. BYREDO, which only has 12 stores worldwide including a flagship store in its place of origin, Stockholm, certainly does the 'niche' in niche perfumery more than justice.

Thriving on a Swedish minimalist aesthetic, the look of each fragrance is uniformly sleek and modern—or perhaps it is down to the fact that the creations don't need fussy packaging or advertising to sell themselves. Since 2006, Gorham's brand has put forth fragrances that focus on the quality, not quantity, of raw materials used, nonetheless resulting in wonderfully complex constructions. To see the line of products produced by Byredo, please visit their page. You will notice the bottle design stays the same.

The latest are Black Saffron, an oriental composition based around the costly spice and omnipresent element of his Indian upbringing, Bullion, an interlacing of pink pepper and black plum with a symphony of rare musk and wood ingredients, and—in tune with 2012—Apocalyptic, a wood fragrance composed of fire iron, black raspberry, oak moss and birch. In the following interview, Gorham discusses his transition from Fine Arts student to head of his own perfume label and the challenges that come with it, collaborations with the likes of M/M (Paris) and what otherworldly territories he hopes to demistify through fragrance next.

Should there be a certain aspect of elitism to perfume? The choice to work with a few select stockists was more based on their ability to sell the ideas of the products that I created, and those stockists were actually very limited. I wasn't strategic enough to connect the idea of rarity to desirability but it was always very clear for me that the elitist view of the perfume industry did not apply to BYREDO. My idea today is really that these products are for anybody who can appreciate them.


At first he had to proof himself to the industry, due to his lack of pedigree. But according to Ben, "the products spoke for themselves and it's really been the one thing that's transcended the industry's traditional framework."

As for his products, I first smelled Pulp in Las Vegas about two years ago, when my cousin and I got away for our 20th anniversary. Good man that he is, he was perfectly willing to tag along for a day while I hit a bunch of perfume counters and squealed over a bunch of lines I’d read about but never encountered before. The SA’s at Barney’s were especially delightful: “Ohhhh, a perfumista. Take your time, we like you guys.” After a good hour moving slowly through different collections, sniffing and generally geeking out, the Byredo rep said, “Try this. I think you’ll like it.” Cue my first big Pulp-induced grin; it was love at first huff.

That first rush of delight whenever I smell this has never gone away. Like many perfumistas, I have crushes and infatuations that come and go as some hot new thang comes along, but Pulp belongs to a select group that I can’t ever imagine myself going without. In fact, I don’t think The Engineer would let me be without this. I wear a lot of things he likes, but he can only remember the names of two of my fragrances, and asks for them regularly. Black Cashmere, and Pulp.

Notes from Fragrantica:
Top: bergamot, cardamom, blackcurrant
Heart: fig, red apple, tiare flower
Drydown: cedar, praline, peach blossom

Technically, Pulp is big dollops of fig and blackcurrant and apple, but once they’re all thrown in the magical pot of the perfumer and bottled, the vibe I get is rhubarb.  Juicy, tart, in-your-face rhubarb. And did I mention juicy? Technically again, this is supposed to be a fruity-floral, but screw that. Pulp went and created its own category: the fruity-fruity. I get great longevity off of this, but it’s rare that I don’t, so take that for what it’s worth. Also, this has some serious waft. In my experience that just amounts to oodles of compliments, but be advised. Grinch-type people could find their hearts growing three sizes when they smell you.