Byredo Young Rose dedicates its latest fragrance to young people
During visits to China, Ben Gorham was struck by the creative dynamism he discovered there, a spirit that resonates with a global movement of young people who want to make their indelible mark on the world.
Layering fiery Sichuan pepper over a base of damask rose, the fragrance deliberately challenges convention, offering a complex take on classic romance.
For the global launch of Young Rose, he looked to the country's vibrant creative scene and collaborated with 28-year-old photographer Leslie Zhang on a series of campaign images.
As the visual voice of a generation, Zhang's signature is referencing the past to create something entirely new. He envelops his subjects in a mirage of the past, abstractly alluding to familiar aesthetic elements.
True visionaries do not fear nostalgia: instead, as they progress, they extract and refigure their own stories.
As the visual voice of a generation, Zhang's signature is referencing the past to create something entirely new. He envelops his subjects in a mirage of the past, abstractly alluding to familiar aesthetic elements. True visionaries do not fear nostalgia: instead, as they progress, they extract and refigure their own stories.
For the Young Rose campaign, Zhang inscribes a thousand-year-old poem on young lovers: their body language speaks, literally, of love and desire. They are emotions that last throughout the centuries, just as the rose still stands, unshakable in its symbolism.
Byredo Young Rose launched in Byredo stores in China on April 29 with a dedicated WeChat pop-up store.
Byredo young rose is available worldwide from September 2021.
YOUNG ROSE
Top: Sichuan Pepper, Ambrette Seeds
Heart: Damask Rose, Iris
Base: Musk, Ambroxan
About Ben Gorham, Founder & Creative Director, Byredo
A native Swede to an Indian mother and Canadian father, Ben Gorham grew up in Toronto, New York and Stockholm. His original and very serious dream was to play basketball professionally. As a young athlete he excelled at the game, playing for his high school in New York and then college in Canada before leaving to play professionally in Europe. Unable to obtain the correct paperwork to continue professionally, Gorham reluctantly gave up the game. He eventually found solace in the arts and enrolled in Stockholm art school.
After graduation, a chance meeting with a perfumer convinced him and he now prefers to express his creativity through perfumes than through paintings. Without any formal training in the field, Gorham sought the services of two world-renowned perfumers explaining his olfactory desires and letting them create the compositions. As an outsider in the beauty industry, Gorham is a bit of an anomaly and has been recognized for his personal style and connection to fashion and art in several international magazines.
About L eslie Zhang, Photographer
Born in 1992, Leslie Zhang, a native of Yangzhou, grew up in Nanjing and currently lives and works in Shanghai. As one of the new generations of creative thinkers, he is helping to shape Chinese fashion and its images. Deeply influenced by his memories of a childhood in China, his work in fashion photography has been published in magazines such as Another Man, Dazed, Love and global editions of Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, T Magazine and Wallpaper*. Zhang was included in the 2019 BoF 500 and Dazed 100, the global list of talents defining culture today. Personal projects include various ongoing photography series and Les Lies, the photographer's first independent photobook published in 2017. The photographer-led creative agency Fuwafuwa was launched in 2020.