For Byredo founder Ben Gorham, scents serve as ways of accessing distant locations and memories, exploring broad concepts and commentating on the current day. “Smell and memory are so closely linked and importantly so subjective,” Gorham says. “One smell can remind three different people of wildly different things: one person might like it, one love it and the other absolutely hate it. This is what I find so interesting about smell.”
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In previous interviews, including one with us in 2021, he revealed the first Byredo scent recalled memories of his absent father, featuring notes of sage, jasmine, violet and musk. His follow up, a blend of temple incense, amber, ginger and bergamot, took notes from the Mumbai suburb where his mother was born. These scents, which are highly intertwined with his own memories, relied on real-life figures for inspiration (his mother, his absent father), but the brand’s latest release, a reissue of the popular Mister Marvelous, conjures an archetype instead.
Mister Marvelous smells like: mandarin, neroli flower, bamboo, black amber and cedar.
“For Mr Marvelous there is the olfactive pyramid that has an essence of classic men’s cologne that we twisted — cedar wood and bamboo with lavender and through bergamot,” he says. “Then there is the name and the story — no man is just one thing. At different stages we evolved and often through dichotomies — a son, a father, a failure, a success, an athlete, a business. [There are] so many facets that can make the modern man marvelous.”
CourtesyFrom afar, Gorham is as marvelous as it gets. He’s a talented, self-taught perfumer, a former professional basketball player, an emerging sneaker and fashion designer and a passionate surfer. Plus, his brand will be acquired by Spanish conglomerate Puig for an estimated $1.1 billion.
