Memories are potent, especially when they engage the different senses and the feelings evoked. So, it comes as no surprise that Ben Gorham, founder of perfume brand Byredo, has drawn on his recollections of time spent with his grandmother in Chembur, for the company’s newest fragrance, Mumbai Noise.
Gorham — born in Stockholm and brought up in New York and Toronto — had visited the Mumbai suburb, where his mother grew up, as a child. Fifteen years later, when he revisited it, much had changed, but many things that had permeated his recollections, such as the incense from the neighbourhood temple, hadn’t.
“All my inspirations for creating a perfume [approximately priced between ₹11,000 to ₹20,000] are connected to personal memories — places from my childhood, specific moments of my life,” says the Swedish native, who has been translating memories into much-loved fragrances since 2006. He calls it a completely subjective, intangible, esoteric process, which (for him, at least) is aided by being in one place. “Sweden has somehow focussed my mind and allowed it to wander at the same time.”
A city that always gives
For Mumbai Noise, Gorham has used strong aromas like davana (a herbaceous plant from South India), sandalwood, and even coffee together. “The olfactive approach is one of contrasts and contradictions. It’s an amber fragrance that features rich, warm woods with brightness, plummy davana positioned alongside leather, bitter coffee stirred with sweet tonka beans,” he says. “It’s a fragrance that commands your attention and envelopes your senses immediately. That’s how I feel when I am in Mumbai, in my family home — I wanted that overwhelming power of a place to come across.”
This is not the first time the city has inspired him, with Byredo having previously released Encens Chembur in 2008, a discontinued fragrance that features temple incense, amber ginger and bergamot, that he calls “a photograph of what I captured at that time”.
For Gorham, the death of his grandmother put an end to his holiday visits.
But when he returned to the country in his 20s, he recalls that “as soon as I stepped off the plane, I was transported back to being a child and could instantly picture and feel being home with my family. India means home to me — not home as in a house, but home as in part of where I am from, and, most importantly, where part of my family and my mother is from.”
Exploring the diversity of India
What differentiates Encens Chembur and Mumbai Noise? “India runs subtly through so much of what I do. Mumbai Noise started growing in my mind more as a never-ending film, rather than a photograph anchored in the past.” As a result, the new fragrance is a dialogue with contemporary India, as seen in its campaign shot by photographer Ashish Shah.
“I was drawn to Ashish because of the modernity and reality of his work, and his distinct lens on his home country. Beyond the scent, I wanted the campaign to capture the hearts and minds of contemporary India,” says Gorham. “Mumbai has evolved at an astounding pace — it has changed drastically in the years that I didn’t visit — yet the way the rest of the world continues to depict India remains so cliché.”
Shah worked with local dancers, artists, models and drag performers for months to create a contemporary portrait of modern India, removed from stereotypes.
The brand will soon launch its first store in the country, at Mumbai’s Jio World Drive. “We always create spaces for people to hang out in, to feel and see different textures and colours, something that can stimulate and soothe at the same time. All of the products are there to pick up and play with — it’s an interactive and informal space.”
Mumbai Noise, priced at ₹18,900 (100 ml), will be available at Jio World Drive.
