Byredo

Founded 2006 · Stockholm, Sweden · Ben Gorham

Byredo gave niche perfumery its current look: a bare bottle, a typographic label, English names and legible formulas. It was founded in Stockholm by a former basketball player with no training in perfumery, and in under twenty years he sold it to Puig.

History

Ben Gorham, son of an Indian mother and a Canadian father, played professional basketball and knew nothing of perfumery when a conversation with Pierre Wulff led him into the trade. He founded Byredo in Stockholm in 2006 and worked with the perfumers Olivia Giacobetti and Jérôme Epinette. His contribution is as visual as it is olfactory: Scandinavian minimalism applied to the bottle defined how niche has looked ever since. Gypsy Water (2008) and Bal d'Afrique (2009) are its cult names. In 2022 the Spanish group Puig bought a majority of the house.

Iconic models

Gypsy Water (2008)
Juniper, incense and dry vanilla. The house's best known.
Bal d'Afrique (2009)
Neroli, violet and vetiver; its reading of twenties Paris.
Mojave Ghost (2014)
Ambrette and sandalwood, almost transparent; among the best sellers.

Worth knowing

Gorham was a professional basketball player with no training in perfumery. He set up the house at twenty-eight and sold it to Puig at forty-four.