SIX SCENTS: INTERVIEW WITH KAYA SORHAINDO

Fashion | angie | August 15, 2010

Ever since Six Scents debuted, I have bought at least one perfume from every series. They combine both the world of exclusive bespoke perfume which is a dying art due to the rise of trash commercial perfumes (eg. britney spears’s putrid candy scent) with new young designers and come up with perfumes quite like no other.

At this age where unique scents are unaffordable by the general masses, Six Scents manages to keep its cult appeal yet also have their following which makes it commercially accessible to more people who are less receptive to the age old idea of perfumery. Injecting fresh ideas and design that is not just limited to its packaging (think film and collectibles), Six Scents has created a new generaton of perfumes.

It is my fortune to have met one of their founders late last year, Kaya Sorhaindo. I’ve seen the samples for series 3 and they are quite like no other, each designer gets more cutting edge and exciting with each collection. Sadly I can’t share that with everyone so here is an interview and photos from Kaya’s personal collection. He explains the idea behind Six Scents far better than I do so I shall just shut up now.

1. What is Six Scents all about?

KS: Six Scents is a fragrance company that we launched in 2008. Annually we select six prominent fashion designers and align them with six celebrated perfumers to create a series of six unique fragrances. We then invite artists from a wide range of creative disciplines to contribute to the experience by creating films and artworks that present a new way of interpreting and engaging with these fragrances. Each collection is associated with a different charity, where a percentage of the proceeds are donated.

2. Following 2 extremely successful collaborations with various designers what is in store for your third series?

KS: The next collection is really special. We are inviting fragrance lovers (and non-lovers) on a cinematic journey
into the nature of childhood memories and the influence of adolescence on identity, narrated through scent. We have tasked the designers to create fragrances around their most intimate childhood memories and have invited a group of contemporary artists to interpret these stories in a series of short films. The rest is a secret, but it will slowly be unveiled in September.

3. What were you inspired by when you created the six scents range?

KS: The inspiration really comes from the way that my agency metaproject (www.themetaproject.com) works. The approach and philosophy is always the same, creating a multi-sensory experience, interdisciplinary collaborations with artists and exploring new ways to engage with an audience. The idea is to approach every project, as if we were curators of an art institution, museum or gallery. It is not necessarily about calling artist to collaborate on a project, but it is about giving them a space to create. For the audience it is about inviting them into this space and giving them the opportunity to take part in the creation by giving the work new meaning. It is funny as the word ‘Curator’ traditionally means ‘gaurdian of children and lunatics’, not many people know this, but in a sense this is very relevant when you look at progressive ideas today, a lot of them emerge from a place of creative innocence and promiscuity and when you (as an agency or person) are able to help channel this creativity and bring it to a larger audience, its a really beautiful thing. For us we are doing it through the sense of smell

4. What was your most memorable collaboration in the Six Scents range?

KS: All of the designers are really wonderful people, very inspiring and have such a clear vision of what they want to accomplish creatively. For the upcoming collection (Six Scents: Series Three) one of the designers concept was to capture the transition from birth to death. Very simple, but equally interesting concept, however I was unaware of how this would be translated in his fragrance. So, when I went to Paris to film the perfumer, Christophe Raynaud who was creating this designers fragrance for this documentary we are producing, I made an interesting discovery. When i entered the Givaudan Paris office I was greeted by another perfumer and she said ‘Hey Kaya did you smell Christophe’s sperm’. I was like what!?!? I thought for a second that I may have misunderstood her with her french accent, but i did not dare to ask her to repeat. When i entered Christophe’s office he gave me a sample of the fragrance, it smelt very familiar, but I just could not tell what it was. Then he explained to me the idea. His interpretation of the designers concept ‘birth to death’, starts with a burst of sperm (the top note) the act of sex and creation, then after you smell fresh baby powder and leathery notes (the heart note) that symbolized birth and then the dry down is incense (the bottom note) representing death. Then it all made sense to me. I smelt it again and at first it did smell like sperm! I thought to myself that this is some great smelling sperm.. haha.. but it is really such a beautiful and conceptual fragrance. I have many stories, but this is one that is fresh in my mind. The girls in my office love it!

5. What is your dream collaboration for Six Scents?

KS: Wow, that is a tough one. Well Six Scents the series will continue to follow the same path in regards to the type of designers and artist that we will collaborate with. However, Six Scents Parfums Inc. will begin creating fragrances for some really interesting Pop/Cultural Icons, as well as spaces and boutiques. These projects are very exciting. So in a sense we are collaborating with some extremely interesting people. I am not sure about Joseph and the team. I am sure every member of my staff has their personal dream collaboration, however for me I think it would be quite fun to collaboration with NASA on fragrance series for each planet. The candle company Cire Trudon actually did this for the moon, but I would love to see these realized as a fragrance that you wear. You would ask me ‘What fragrance are you wearing today? and I would say Jupiter, you know the largest planet in the solar system.. haha. You would say I am so high! and my response would be…Yes I am… out-of-space.

7. Who is your favourite nose and what scent do you wear?

KS: Serge Lutens is my favorite nose/perfumer, we actually have the same birthday.
He is such an amazing person,
As for the fragrances I wear, wow… It really depends on what I am doing, what I am wearing, where I am going, how I am feeling, how I am meeting etc. I have more fragrances than i can count, but here are a few that are on heavy rotation

Six Scents: Series One – No.3, (Cosmic Wonder), No.4 (Gareth Pugh)
Six Scents: Series Two – No.5 (Richard Nicoll)
Six Scents: Series Three – No.1, No.4, No.5, No.6 (cant reveal the names as yet )
Serge Lutens Fragrances
Santa Maria Novella Fragrances
Editions de Parfum
Mark Buxton Fragrances (not the stuff he does for Comme des Garçons, but his personal line)

8. How does living new york inspire your life? Do you love living there?

KS: I Love New York! I travel quite a bit, but I always miss my home, my girl, my cats, my bodega’s/deli’s,
my Williamsburg/Brooklyn, My ‘I can get a cab almost anytime I need it’, and My restaurants. There is so much, but most of all I love the people in New York. It is a tuff city and I really think you have to be driven to succeed, and I am happy to see so many people of different nationalities in different disciplines working hard to realize their dream.

9. Which is your favourite city in the world besides New York.

KS: Wow, can I revisit this question in a few years. I am in love with Morocco and I love Japan

10. Describe a day in the life of Kaya Sorhaindo

KS: Not that exciting,I get out my house around 7:30 AM, I ride my bike from Williamsburg (Brooklyn) to my office in Soho, but before I get to my office I stop at the Mercer Hotel for breakfast. When I get into my office, I talk to my plants suspended in Boskke pots and tell them how beautiful they are and to please not die on me, with all the smoking i do i really need the oxygen.. answer loads of email, sit down with my team to brainstorm on concepts and ideas for projects. We have a full kitchen in our office so these days each of us takes a turn cooking lunch, then in the afternoon either having drinks at Cirac Tabac or the Soho Grand (especially during the summer in The Yard) or simply drinking a bottle of wine at my desk by myself. I ride back to brooklyn have dinner with my girlfriend and back on the computer dealing with Japan and Australia until about 3am. Then it all start again. Depending on the day, season or guests that are visiting New York you can throw in some late night partying, frolicking and over indulging at the Boom Boom Room, Soho House, etc, but for the most part I am stuck to my laptop these days

11. Is there any special quote/song or anything in particular than you live by or perhaps inspire you?

KS: There are so many, I will give you two for how i feel right now/today.

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.”
- Oscar Wilde

& I forgot who said this but…
The most radical thing you can do in this day and age is to let something exist rather than to make it disappear

12. Who is your favourite fashion designer?

KS: Hmm… it is really tough to say which is my favorite designer of all times, that i have and will be consistently inspired by…

For a very long time i use to love Rei Kawakubo, Yohji and Margiela, these days i dont know… I love what Riccardo Tisci and Damir Doma is doing… and of course i love all of our designers that contribute to Six Scents, but it is hard to single out one person.

13. Do you love me and tashed.com?

KS: haha.. words fail describe my love for you!