Scandinavian minimalism with a memory attached, tried by the millilitre.
Byredo works in clean lines and single ideas, a fragrance built around one clear feeling rather than a crowded accord. The compositions are legible and modern, easy to wear daily, and they tend to reveal their quality slowly rather than in the first three minutes.
- Origin Stockholm, Sweden
- Founded 2006
- Known for Minimalist compositions, Bal d’Afrique
- Here 1 fragrance
- Founder
- Ben Gorham
- Concept
- Stockholm minimalism built on personal memory
01
From the basketball court to scent
Ben Gorham was born in Sweden to an Indian mother and a Canadian father, and grew up between Toronto, New York and Stockholm. He played basketball, then took a fine arts degree in Stockholm. A meeting with the French perfumer Pierre Wulff turned him towards scent, and in 2006 he founded Byredo in Stockholm, its name drawn from 'by redolence'. Puig bought a majority stake in 2022 and the remaining shares in 2025, the year Gorham left.
02
Memories handed to perfumers
Gorham has no perfumery training. He fills notebooks and his phone with moments and people, then briefs professional perfumers, among them Jérôme Epinette and Olivia Giacobetti, to turn them into scent. The first release, Green, was sage, orange and musk; Gypsy Water, Encens Chembur and Rose Noir came early too. Bal d'Afrique grew from the diaries his father kept on his travels in Africa: buchu, African marigold, bergamot and blackcurrant over violet, jasmine and cyclamen, then vetiver, cedar, tonka and musk.
03
A charred-wood cap for the Absolu
Epinette, a Robertet perfumer based in New York since 2006, composed Bal d'Afrique and in 2025 reworked it as an Absolu de Parfum. The Absolu leans into praline, violet and black amber over cedar and vetiver, with darker juice at a higher concentration than the eau de parfum. Its cap is textured after yakisugi, the Japanese craft of charring wood, and lifts to show a silver and gold atomiser. The eau de parfum bottle, shaped by Swedish restraint, keeps its black cap.
Who founded Byredo?
Byredo was founded by Ben Gorham.
Where is Byredo based?
Byredo is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
When was Byredo founded?
Byredo was founded in 2006.
Who composed the Byredo fragrances we carry?
Jérôme Epinette.