The Art of Capturing A Feeling Through Scent

Nothing conjures a memory quite like our sense of smell. Walking past a bakery, laundromat or thrift store, through a cloud of wafting scents, we're instantly taken somewhere else, if only for a moment. It's the goal of perfumery to control these aromas, blending dozens of ingredients to create a fragrance that evokes a particular memory or mood.

In many cases, the inspiration is personal, a vision the perfumer holds and is trying to share. Motherboard spoke with the American fashion designer John Varvatos about his new perfume, Dark Rebel Rider, which strives to capture the rock 'n' roll spirit of Detroit, his hometown. We wanted to know how something as intimate and indelible as a memory can be caught in a bottle.

Motherboard: Can you tell me about the inspiration for Dark Rebel Rider?

John Varvatos: Dark Rebel came from this whole rebirth of Detroit. I'm from Detroit. Spending time there, really looking at a city that's somehow pulled itself together after many years of falling apart: It's this rebel spirit that I was very impressed and intrigued by. It made me think a lot about who are the real rebels today. There are very few who really have a voice and walk to their own beat.

It came from trying to be different not for the sake of being different, but trying to have your own voice, your own point of view. It's what we wanted to do when we started with both Dark Rebel and Dark Rebel Rider. We wanted to do something that had a different voice than what was out there: everything from how we put the juice together in a very artisanal, handmade kind of way; to what the notes were; to the packaging, which is kind of badass as well.

Were you trying to capture something particular about Detroit, or is it the city itself?

The packaging was really inspired by some of the things that really clicked for me when growing up, when I first found the look that I connected with: Iggy and the Stooges in the early '70s, basically. They were pretty simple, with leather jackets and skinny jeans and boots. There wasn't anything like it at the time. So those motorcycle jackets, the simplicity to those things, there was something very tough and sexy about them. So whether it's the packaging being the leather with the zippers, to the juice being very tough and sexy, this was what inspired me.

So after you have the idea, can you walk me through how the creative process works when you start to actually make the juice itself?

There's a gentleman by the name of Rodrigo Flores-Roux, who I've worked on all of my scents with since we started in that business around 13 years ago. Although he doesn't work for my company officially, he is such a part of our DNA. So we start by talking about what we want to convey with this. We just did Dark Rebel last year; what do we want to do with Dark Rebel Rider? What are the notes, what's the tone of what we want to say? Who's the guy that wears it, how does it fit into our world of different fragrances? What makes it different? Why do I want to wear it?

Rodrigo came to the meeting after I sent him an email brief about my idea. This guy is a character; he came in all leather: leather pants, leather jeans, leather jacket, leather shirt, leather tie. He was sweating! He said, "you talked about having enough leather in it. You said you wanted it to be badass. This is about as badass as I can be, and I'm going to have to take some of these clothes off shortly."

That's how we kicked it off. Then we started to build the notes. We want a little of the smokiness we love, and we want to crank up the leather. So he brought some things to play around with. And just like he came in like a method actor, Rodrigo then went back as a mad scientist, and he cooked up some things based on all that, and brought it back. We talk about what's right, what's not.

Everybody's skin is different, too; that's one of the most interesting things about fragrances. Our body chemistry brings the top notes out differently with everybody. I might be smelling too much of this, and not enough of that. So we go back and forth about this. It's a process that goes through a number of iterations until, sometimes quicker than others, you hit that magic thing and go "don't touch it. You got it. It's here. I love it. I want to put it on and wear it for the next week and see what the reaction is." That's the process on every one of the fragrances we do.

Tell me how the two Dark Rebel fragrances are related, and different.

The Dark Rebel I think is a little more of an exotic smell. It's a mix of so many different things that just happen to all come together, like any good formula in life; whether it's a relationship or a meal, it's all about the formula being right.

The heart and soul that connects the two is the smokiness and the leather. And then we play a lot with other floral aspects, that is the kind of the softer side of it as well. But when it's mixed with those other elements it creates something different. The olfactory difference is quite distinct between the two. Though the base of them reads the same, on the skin they read quite differently.

So was Dark Rebel Rider you refining a certain idea, or was it going in a different direction?

With Dark Rebel Rider we said let's take what we did in Dark Rebel and really pump it up, really be badass with this fragrance. We thought we were tough—let's really go after it. Let's shoot the adrenaline in it. Let's push the envelope, away from what everybody's expectations are on the market for how we segment fragrances. For everybody involved in the process, if it's too familiar we want to stay away from it. But at the same time, we don't want to create something nobody wants to wear.

What do you mean about how fragrances are "segmented"?

In the fragrance world, people talk about fresh fragrances, floral fragrances, etc. There's a pie chart that every fragrance house shows you of all the different categories. I look at them and say I don't really want to be in any of them, because there's too much similarity. I want to create our own. We don't do 100 different fragrances anyway, so I want to do things that feel like they'll stand the test of time, not something of the moment. Also something that's unique and, most importantly, something people really want to wear. There's no use creating something that's interesting just for everyone to say it's interesting, but you don't really want to wear it.

How many versions of Dark Rebel Rider did you go through until you settled on the final recipe?

I think about five. But when we went through the first three, it was all in the same day. We looked at derivatives of different things that we had talked about in my first meeting. Rodrigo played with variants of different ingredients, and added a little of what I call "magic dust"—unexpected things, basically. Then something clicked, and we said we like where this is going, but let's refine it now. After that we did a couple other iterations.

Did you know it when you had it? Was it obvious to you?

Yeah, for sure. I was excited about it. I immediately put it on, and went down to the design studio with a little tester bottle, and said, "everybody, here it is on me, but you guys wear it, see what you think about it, and give me your comments." The response was so extremely positive. Fragrances are so personal that a lot of times when you're testing stuff, there aren't many perfumes where you get more than a 60-70% "I love it" kind of thing. You might get 60% I love it, 20% I like it, 20% it's not me. This was one that pretty much across the board everybody said this is amazing.

Since smell is so personal, and this was inspired by Detroit and your own memories from your younger years, was it ever difficult to get that particular vision across?

There was a smell I used to get in my grandfather's bedroom, in Detroit. I couldn't tell what it was, but I always thought about it when I thought of my grandfather. It's funny how fragrances sometimes remind you of a beach, or wherever; well I always really loved this kind of exotic smell of my grandfather's bedroom. I tried to explain it verbally when we were working on this fragrance. That's what we tried to capture. And we did get it in the end. So Dark Rebel Rider has this kind of rebellious spirit, but there's also this familiarity I had with my grandfather's bedroom.

Do you spend a lot of time in Detroit still?

I do. We opened a store there a year ago, right in downtown Detroit. We were like the first retailer to open; it's really like a ghost town down there. There are a couple of bars and restaurants that have started to open up, but we were the first retailer. And it's been great. So I spent a lot of time when we were building the store. And my family is still there, so I go back a couple times a year. But with the store I've been going back more. And I love what's happening. It reminds me of what was happening in Brooklyn 15 years ago, when it was all young people going there, and it was a little gritty, but there was something cool and Old World about it at the same time. That's how Detroit is. It takes me back to another time, but it's also very youthful downtown, and there's lots of young people that have moved in from all over the country. And they appreciate both the urban renewal and the grit. There are certain people who really wouldn't like grit. But I think that's what makes the city. It always had a bit of grit to it, a bit of toughness.

So you're optimistic about the rebirth of Detroit?

Very. It started with us planting our flag in the ground by building the store. I'm one of the biggest cheerleaders for what's going on down there. I say to everybody, in the next 5 years it will be one of the most talked about cities in the world for urban growth and urban renewal. Everywhere I go around the world I talk to people about it, because it's an exciting thing to see.

Dark Rebel Rider from John Varvatos is available at Bloomingdale's