The pandemic must have either made Ben Gorham incredibly creative - or led to a major product jam at his perfume label Byredo.
This is the only way to explain why the native Swede is already launching the fourth new perfume this year, as Byredo last released so many fragrances at once shortly after its creation in 2006.
“Mumbai Noise” is the name of the current creation and is associated with memories of Gorham's childhood.
Maria Wiesner
Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.
Follow I follow
"From a young age, almost immediately after my birth, I often traveled to India to spend time with my grandmother in Chembur, Mumbai," says Gorham. The perfume career changer, who initially played basketball professionally after college, grew up internationally. He lived in Toronto, New York and Stockholm with his Indian mother and half Scottish, half French Canadian father. The visits to the mother's home country became less frequent. After his grandmother died, he did not return to Mumbai until he was twenty and found that the city had changed.
“Mumbai Noise” should now be “an approximation of today's city, combined with my memories of its past”.
The scent is as diverse as the city, after whose street noise it is named: fresh, plum notes of Davana meet the milky sweetness of Tonka beans, in between a tart coffee note wafts over as if from the roadside.
This Mumbai is not tame, but with its aromatic warmth it is made for the European winter.