BEN GORHAM

Ben Gorham is a Swedish entrepreneur and creative director of the niche perfume brand Byredo. He was born to an actress from India and an artist from Canada. His parents divorced when Gorham was a child, and in the following years he lived in New York, Toronto, and Stockholm. He was a professional basketball player; when his contract with the basketball club expired, he decided to return from the United States to Stockholm and enroll in college in the arts department. At one of the contemporary art exhibitions where his works were presented, he met perfumer Peter Wolf, who expressed the opinion that it is easier to evoke the desired emotions in a person with a scent than with paintings. Gorham was inspired by this idea and began to study the basics of perfumery. The author's first works were perfumed candles. However, he was not satisfied with the result and turned to Olivia Giacobetti and Jerome Epinette. The former worked only on candles, Epinette took up the development of all the other compositions. Byredo appeared in 2006, three years later the brand's first boutique opened in Stockholm. The main idea of ​​the brand was unique, but at the same time understandable fragrances, collected from high-quality raw materials. Gorham describes his works as a mixture of Scandinavian avant-garde and Indian tradition. "I am half Indian, and have always felt a part of the Eastern soul in myself," he said in an interview with the Russian publication Life. Byredo fragrances are often based on the creative director's memories. In Green, the brand's first work, he embodied the memory of his father, as he remembered him from early childhood: the composition conveys the smells of Paris in the 70s and the cologne he used. Gorham dedicated Encens Chembur to his mother - this is the name of the city in the suburbs of Mumbai, where she was born. The work conveys a mixture of the smells of spices and herbs with the greenery of parks and incense smoke coming from the temple. Gorham acts only as the creative director of the brand; The author of all Byredo personal fragrances is Jerome Epinette. Today, the brand's collection includes more than seven dozen compositions, including collaborations with the French design agency M / M (M / Mink), the fashion brand Off-White (Elevator Music), the sunglasses manufacturer Oliver Peoples (the Oliver Peoples line), the Dutch photography duo Inez & Vinoodh (1996 Inez & Vinoodh) and the Acne brand (the Lilla Nygatan 23 candle). In November 2020, the Osynlig collection of perfumed candles, created as part of Gorham's collaboration with the Swedish furniture giant Ikea, went on sale.