Founder & Creative Director, Vilhelm Parfumerie
Vilhelm Parfumerie's Jan Vilhelm Ahlgren
We are joined today by Jan Vilhelm Ahlgren, founder of Vilhelm Parfumerie. Ahlgren is a polymath who leaves no stone unturned, from photo studios and perfume organ to leather goods workshops, in his pursuit of a certain idea of luxury. Learn about Jan’s path to Perfume and hear the romantic inspirations for his fragrances.
https://vilhelmparfumerie.com/
Join us Wednesdays and Fridays for Tea Time at the Apothecary. From Merz Apothecary in Chicago, brothers TQ and JQ talk wellness, tea, small business, and welcome a variety of special guests.
Transcript (200 segments)
J
Jake Q0:01
How are you, brother?
T
TQ0:03
Uh, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing?
J
Jake Q0:07
I'm doing great. I'm very excited for today's tea talk.
T
TQ0:10
Very cool day. A very cool day. Special guest.
Yeah. Yeah. So, everybody, thank you for joining us. I'm TQ. This is my brother Jake Q, talking to you from Teton at the Apothecary here at MS Apothecary in Chicago. This is a show we do every Wednesday and Friday at noon. We talk health, we talk tea, we talk wellness, we talk fun, cool topics, fragrance, beauty, you name it, skincare, everything that we love at the Apothecary. And then we often interview really amazing guests. And today is a special one of those. We have Jan Ahlgren, founder and creator of Vilhelm Perfumery. And he should be on with us any moment.
Hey, there he is. Hey, thank you for... Hello. Thank you for joining us.
J
Jan Ahlgren1:06
No, I'm happy to join you.
T
TQ1:08
Yeah, we had talked briefly before this. You're in Paris right now, huh?
J
Jan Ahlgren1:12
Yeah, I'm in Paris right now.
T
TQ1:15
Awesome. Awesome. It looks like you're in Paris. It looks very elegant where you are.
J
Jan Ahlgren1:20
Yeah. Well, I try my best as well. Keep, you know...
T
TQ1:27
Yeah. No, it's great. Thank you for joining us and I'm excited to get into and talk with you. Before we do, I have to tell you, I had sort of a... I didn't realize you and I have this connection. I understand you are half Swedish, right?
J
Jan Ahlgren1:43
Yep. Half Swedish, half American.
T
TQ1:46
And last night, Ancestry DNA updated my DNA background and I found out instead of being half South Asian, half German American, I am 5% Swedish, which means I have too. Yeah. So, I feel like, you know, we're both part Swedish, we're both dashing and kind of glamorous. I think I kind of feel the strong connection with you. So, I'm really excited for this interview today.
J
Jan Ahlgren2:13
I knew that from the minute when I saw you. I felt there's a bit of sweet in that guy.
J
Jake Q2:18
There's something going on.
T
TQ2:19
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Great. So he's half Swedish, half American. And where did you grow up, Yan?
J
Jan Ahlgren2:28
I grew up in a very small town in Sweden. Nobody has usually heard of it. It's called Hudiksvall. So that's where I grew up. My mom actually, she's from New York, and she met my dad while he was sailing in Greece in the 70s. And then my mom came from New York up to this tiny village and then I was born.
T
TQ2:53
Cool. So, what are we drinking today and why?
J
Jan Ahlgren3:00
Well, today we are drinking some tea. I have a very small teacup. I drink it in a small teacup. I like it, I must admit. But yeah, I'm drinking Earl Grey.
T
TQ3:13
Is that your favorite? Are you a big tea drinker?
J
Jan Ahlgren3:18
In periods, yeah. It really varies. I've been in a coffee phase lately, and then I always go into different phases. Then I can have a tea phase and then I find my special tea, then it's coffee, then it's something. I was into Japanese different teas for a while, but now back to classic Earl Grey tea.
T
TQ3:43
Um, it sounds good. I like pretty much everything you've mentioned. Coffee, tea, it doesn't matter. But we generally, on this show, drink tea or herb, or some kind of not a true tea, but an herb as a tea, which is something that we like to talk about. So I'm also an explorer. Like I love Japanese teas and classic teas.
J
Jake Q4:07
I understand your wife is a big tea drinker.
J
Jan Ahlgren4:11
Yeah. Well, my... I have to... My ex-wife was... Yes, she was nice.
T
TQ4:18
All right. That's what I heard. She was a big tea drinker.
J
Jan Ahlgren4:23
Yeah, and she still is. I'm sure she's a big tea drinker and she enjoys that.
T
TQ4:28
Absolutely. Yeah. Cool.
But no feeling. So it's all good. No, no, it's just it's funny. So you know, I guess you started this luxury perfume brand, but I would say you're a man of the world from my understanding and just from your background, you're half Swedish, half New York, sort of sparked from a Greek sailing adventure. So already you start with a very fairly cosmopolitan beginning before you were even born. Um, how does one start a perfume brand? You know, we have a lot of fragrance lovers. It's something that it feels like when you see it, it feels already so concrete to me and it's, you know, it's sort of expensive and you're already looking at the beautiful bottles and the sprayers, but it's a lot of work. And I'm wondering how you came to this point of having launched this amazing brand, which we'll jump into.
J
Jan Ahlgren5:28
Well, I was at a point in my life, I was actually designing leather bags. I was going to design a luxury collection of leather bags and I wanted to scent them. I wanted them to not only be recognized by its design and I was also into the touch and feel of the bags and also I wanted them to be recognized by a specific scent. And that's how I got into the world of perfume. To do that I had to obviously get in contact with a perfume house and then I became friends with a perfumer. And then when this happened I totally fell in love. Like I really felt like, okay, I'm home, this is where I should be because you can do anything. You can create your own world. I could invent, in my head, I could take inspiration from the latest exhibition here, and I could pretend that I see a woman drinking a tea and then with the Francis Bacon exhibition, I could see some darkness and then together with the tea and then you have another one smoking a cigarette and that could then become a fragrance inspiration. So, you can live in your own universe when you're creating perfume. That's what I love about it.
T
TQ6:49
That's so cool.
J
Jake Q6:50
How long was it like experimenting before you were like, 'All right, I'm getting the hang of it.' Like I make music and when I was making music, some of my favorite music I've made was early in my career, but it was sort of accidental. And now I make exactly what's in my head. And sometimes I miss the sort of whoops, that's not supposed to go together. And then you're like, whoa, that's kind of magical, right? Do you still have those moments?
J
Jan Ahlgren7:21
Beginner's mind, as they say. Yeah. I think it's an advantage I've always had because I'm not coming from a perfume background. So I come from a way of, in the beginning, to totally think out of the box. So when I'm working with a perfumer, I come with ideas that he's probably not used to having or inspirations that he's not used to having, but I know exactly how I want it to smell. So it's a lot of tries and back and forth, but it's a real collaboration to get what I want it to smell like.
T
TQ7:55
So you're art directing the fragrances essentially.
J
Jan Ahlgren7:58
Yeah.
T
TQ7:59
Basically that. Yeah. You're basically, I would say, you're a fragrance director, so to speak.
J
Jan Ahlgren8:06
You know, every fragrance is based on a fairy tale or some story. Some story, imagination, and yeah. So I would say that's a good way of putting it. Yeah.
T
TQ8:19
Very cool. Yeah. That's really exciting. Um, so when you say you're creating it in your mind, do you get hands-on though in terms of with your own, you know, do you have your own little potions collection, your fragrance collection so that you can at least start to say I'm thinking of something like this? Or are you operating purely on the sort of abstract vision and then making that in collaboration?
J
Jan Ahlgren8:48
Something abstract, but yeah, totally. But then I am very hands-on. So I sit a lot. I am extremely time-consuming for a perfumer. I think they can find me a bit annoying because I spend a lot of time with them and because I enjoy it, obviously. But for me to get it the way I want, I have to spend a lot of time with them.
T
TQ9:12
Yeah. So where did the love of perfuming come from from the beginning? When did you... I mean obviously the handbags was how it became a thing but were you always interested in scent?
J
Jan Ahlgren9:25
Not particularly. I realized though when I think of when I travel to a place, I usually think of it in a color where I go or also a place has a specific scent. I feel it's a color and a scent related to it. So I realize I think a lot like that, but I was not particularly into it before.
T
TQ9:51
No. All right. Cool. Well, the reason I'm asking these particulars about your process is that Jay and I are brothers and I'm more of an art... my wife is a graphic designer. I love design, but I'm more of the vision director person. And Jay is a beat maker and producer, but he definitely gravitates towards everything hands-on, cooking, fragrance formulation... not a perfumer, but like when we're making products, he loves the getting his hands dirty, experimentation, tinkering. And I'm more like, I like to think about what do I want? And we make a good team in that way. But I was curious about how you fit in with yourself.
J
Jan Ahlgren10:37
So I think that's a little bit how I work with the perfumer.
T
TQ10:41
Yeah. Yeah. So I, if I recall when I was reading some of the background, you are a jazz person, am I right?
J
Jan Ahlgren10:51
Yeah. I grew up, my father was a big jazz fan so it was always jazz at home. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis was running around the clock.
J
Jake Q11:09
I've got it back there somewhere in that stack.
J
Jan Ahlgren11:13
Yeah, so I mean, absolutely, yeah. So I grew up with that.
T
TQ11:20
If I had to pick, maybe Kind of Blue, but favorite instrument, favorite artist or a few favorite albums. Can you give me some of your big influences or favorites that you dive into?
J
Jan Ahlgren11:37
Well, obviously Miles Davis. Kind of Blue. Sketches of Spain was also good. And Chet Baker.
T
TQ11:51
Yeah.
J
Jake Q11:54
I think of his cool trumpet. I've not spent much time in Paris in the past. It's been 20-some years. But I think that cool trumpet always makes me think... there's a Parisian vibe there. It's something really... that's my impression when I listen to Chet Baker.
J
Jan Ahlgren12:17
Actually, just recently I had an idea of I could imagine Chet Baker going to Cadaqués where Dalí had a summer house and I could see him in the garden playing and then Dalí is painting to Baker's trumpet at the same time. But yeah, I think he had the coolness and smoothness to him. And then you also have Charlie Parker from before, the hot side.
T
TQ12:50
Right. That's cool. Yeah, I'm a huge jazz fan, so to me, I feel like I always think someday I'm going to start a show where I just talk about jazz for an hour and annoy my...
J
Jan Ahlgren13:02
Who do you listen to at the moment?
T
TQ13:05
Um, I always switch around. I would say for me, Charlie Parker is a constant mainstay that I'm returning to. But if I had to pick, probably Monk is my... I love his sort of off-kilter piano and piano is something to me that just... I love brass instruments. So Coltrane is a favorite of mine, both on a spiritual journey sense and just a jazz, musical sense. But when I want to soothe my soul, I almost always come back to piano. And I would say Monk's Music is one of my favorite albums. And then the Bill Evans live Sunday at the Village Vanguard is like, if I probably had to pick one album to listen to for the rest of my life, it's like, that's delightful to me. It just makes me feel like everything is good and there's infinite possibility.
J
Jan Ahlgren14:06
Yeah.
T
TQ14:07
I'm like right now I'm kind of in the late summer, early fall. I'm feeling Cal Tjader lately. That just feels right right now, you know?
J
Jan Ahlgren14:17
Yeah. I love the vibe.
T
TQ14:18
You create music yourself. You also create your...
J
Jan Ahlgren14:22
Yeah. Mostly hip-hop and dance music.
J
Jake Q14:25
Okay. Yeah. So I'm also coming at it from a very... I did not learn western music. I don't know how to write music. It's all ear, you know. So while I do like to get nitty and gritty and into it, I don't know the writing of it and the format of it.
J
Jan Ahlgren14:46
Yeah.
T
TQ14:46
Yeah.
J
Jan Ahlgren14:48
So I want to talk about how did you guys start your adventure together? How did it start, your story?
T
TQ14:57
Well, sort of like you were born into this unique circumstance, we were born in. My dad is an Indian-born, Pakistani-raised man who came to Chicago at the age of 18. Met my mother in a hospital. She's a nurse, a German Chicago young woman at the time. They met and my dad was like not feeling pharmacy. He didn't want to be a pill counter in a hospital or a chain pharmacy and was gonna get out of the business. And a family friend asked him to go check out this old Swiss German apothecary that was on the north side of Chicago. And he was like, 'No, no.' And she kept insisting and he walked in and he said it was like he was struck dumb. In 20 minutes he agreed to buy the place. It was just shy of a hundred years old. So this year we turned 140 years old and so I was kind of born into it. Also said I don't want to do that, went to school on the east coast, was living in New York, got involved in a web startup and as I realized the possibility for e-commerce, I kept saying to my dad someone should make the e-commerce version of the apothecary and he kept saying you should, we should do it together, you should do it. And at some point I just realized that would be a fun adventure. And here I am 22 years later.
J
Jake Q16:22
And our pops is watching right now. So he's... Hello. Yeah. His name is...
As the products expanded, it was mostly medicines and hard to find German creams and various things that the old school Germans in this neighborhood wanted from the old country. And then when TQ took over the business and joined with my dad, then we started to expand more. My dad has a really good eye for candles and gifts and TQ does as well. And they started to expand and expand and then TQ loves fragrance and so we went and now like a quarter of the store is fragrance.
J
Jan Ahlgren17:06
Yeah. Yeah. No, but you have all the good brands, you know. I saw. Yeah. So, congratulations.
T
TQ17:13
Thanks.
Can we, should we smell some? Should we...
J
Jan Ahlgren17:17
Yeah, let's smell something.
T
TQ17:19
I think we have two to smell today. We're going to do... what do we have? Black Citrus.
J
Jake Q17:26
I've got a few here. Yeah. Which one? And 125th and Bloom. And I'd love to hear some of the stories, but I also would ask which one would you prefer to start with?
J
Jan Ahlgren17:34
We can start with Black Citrus, is fine.
T
TQ17:37
Cool. Cool. So, I want to show for people who don't know, can I just start with... this is a different fragrance, but I grabbed one off of our display just to kind of show your... I'm a type junkie and a design junkie and I have to say your boxes are especially pleasing to me. I love the fact that you made the type repeated sort of the design element of the boxes and kind of have this decorative feel, but it's all coming from the type. So kudos to you on that.
J
Jan Ahlgren18:09
Each name makes the typography. So if you turn the box around, it will say Room Service because I wanted... isn't that cool?
J
Jake Q18:21
When it's on a shelf, you don't just get a block. There's a slight variation to it which grabs you in the subconsciousness.
T
TQ18:30
That's very cool.
J
Jake Q18:30
Totally. It's a little electric when you're scanning the shelves. I love it.
J
Jan Ahlgren18:34
But I also wanted a specific... for my cap, I wanted a specific sound. I haven't gotten it yet, but I wanted to have a specific sound so you would travel to luxury without... I didn't get it yet.
T
TQ18:48
No, I'm going to watch the evolution as we form our relationship and get into it. I'm gonna keep on listening to the cap sound now.
J
Jan Ahlgren18:57
Yeah, you should. But also the pattern was... it's based on the hieroglyphs where in Egypt that's where you find the first perfume. So that's why I based it on that.
T
TQ19:07
That's really cool. All right. So I'm getting my strip ready. All right. So this is Black Citrus. Do you maybe want to... would you rather, should we smell first and then we can talk about the story or how do you prefer to do it?
J
Jan Ahlgren19:29
I can talk about the story while you're smelling. I have to... sorry, I have to fix one. Sorry.
T
TQ19:37
No worries.
J
Jan Ahlgren19:43
So the story of this one is that I've always been extremely... Rudolph Nureyev was an iconic male ballet dancer, probably the best that's ever been.
T
TQ19:58
Yeah.
J
Jan Ahlgren19:59
And this is capturing him. And I got the idea when I was in London. I had watched a documentary about him and he had all these different... to his personality. He was so incredibly charismatic. He had a very dark side. He had extreme sex appeal. He had everything in one, all the different facets. And I wanted to capture this. And for me, maybe because of marketing or whatever, I always first of all thought of citrus as a citrus fragrance, something more for athletes or sporty. I wanted to do a citrus that captured all his personality. So I would say it's a gothic citrus.
T
TQ20:41
Yeah. No, I can tell that. First of all, I'm glad you said it, but I would have said it if you didn't. This is sexy. Sexy. This is a sexy fragrance.
J
Jake Q20:52
I think this is my new fragrance. I'm obsessed with this. This is great. I've smelled this and worn it before and this is sensuous. It's mysterious and it's...
J
Jan Ahlgren21:04
It's got a great spice to it, you know.
J
Jake Q21:06
Yeah.
T
TQ21:06
You know, it's hard. Words get so overused, especially in marketing. But I would say the word that pops to my head, I love words, and 'alluring' is really kind of... take away the marketing and whatever, it's just an alluring, alluring fragrance. It really envelops me and pulls me in.
J
Jan Ahlgren21:31
And you should leave it on because it evolves beautifully and you know, you feel now probably the cardamom and the bergamot.
T
TQ21:40
Cardamom. That's what it is. I was getting like a chai thing. Like a little chai.
J
Jake Q21:44
Yeah. You can't talk to us about anything cardamom without us sort of getting a little too excited. It's like such a homey scent for us because it's in our rice, it's in our tea, it's in everything, you know.
J
Jan Ahlgren21:58
Yeah. And you know, then you have the mate leaves, you have, you know, later on, and you have also... there's a lot of vetiver to it as well that gives it a little smoke, kind of.
T
TQ22:10
Yeah.
J
Jan Ahlgren22:11
Yeah. So that you will feel more and more later on. But I mean, as a citrus it's so interesting and I love it that it has such a strong backbone. And it will stay on you, you can carry it the full day, and it's a different citrus fragrance. You should... and I'm not just saying that to sort of...
T
TQ22:34
No, I... yeah, we're here to talk about you. No, people should try it on. You know, part of what we say, part of what our goal is always like, you know, we're different than a lot of the traditional. I grew up, sort of fell in love with fragrance but had to convince my parents to take me to a department store and then I would save up money to buy something that was expensive. But it always struck me as odd even as a kid that I essentially was being battled for. You know, like once they realized I was there to buy something, I walk in with my family, it was like the counters battle. And I feel like part of my goal in covering fragrance was to say, let's take it out of even the luxury department store where each group of brands or brand has their own person battling for you and let's just become your ally in discovering something amazing, right? So I'm always preaching the gospel of let's sniff things and then let's get to a couple, two, three, whatever. But like, let's try to get to two and get them on your skin and let you live with them. Like, I don't care about selling you today. I want you to love it because I know if you love it, you're going to come back. I know if you love the first thing, you're going to come back next time you're ready for something or you're gonna bring your friend. So, to me, it's all about the joy of discovery and get it on your skin, right? If you don't like it, you can wash it off.
J
Jan Ahlgren23:57
Oh yeah, absolutely. But I think the strength where I feel very... what I feel is strong with Vilhelm is we have so many... what do you say in English? I haven't spoken it in a while. A... like you sell it and then they come back. Revisiting customer. No, repeat business, like you have sort of a...
T
TQ24:19
Yeah, replenishment is the word.
J
Jan Ahlgren24:20
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for. It sounds good. So that makes me feel confident also that people, you know, it's not only good in the top note, you can really feel how worked through they are, all the stages of the perfume.
T
TQ24:37
Yeah. Well, this one I've worn it a number of times. I do recommend that people try it. And I think that, you know, there is like this challenge with a citrus often, even some of the ones that get a little moodier. Citrus tends to be something that is hard to kind of capture and maintain in essence over time, right? Like our feeling is like citrus fragrances, they tend to be... colognes are often citrusy, but they don't last a long time. And one of the things that I'm excited about this fragrance is it does last. It does feel big. It does have this big backbone.
J
Jake Q25:09
But it's... I'm gonna be wearing this for the next few days. And...
J
Jan Ahlgren25:13
Yeah.
J
Jake Q25:15
I'm really in love with this. Put my two favorite things together, the cardamom and citrus. So I'm in.
J
Jan Ahlgren25:21
Okay, good.
And as it's getting colder, I don't want to stop using a citrusy scent. But I want to go with the season a little, you know.
T
TQ25:36
Yeah. Um, and actually people forget citrus is a winter fruit, actually.
J
Jake Q25:42
Yeah, it is. Yeah.
J
Jan Ahlgren25:44
Yeah.
T
TQ25:45
Yeah. Little shout out to California right now, is having some problems, but...
J
Jan Ahlgren25:49
Our parents spend the winters in Palm Springs, so we're lucky enough to get out there.
J
Jake Q25:57
How is Palm Springs? Because I always wanted to go. Is that like where the 50s were, where you had like everything?
J
Jan Ahlgren26:03
John, as a cosmopolitan guy, you will lose your mind. Go during Modernism Week and go see the houses built into the side of a mountain. Everything is built in, no movable furniture. I've been to some of these places where the designers in the 50s built these things where everything is built in. They're little jewelbox masterpieces. They're amazing. I love it.
J
Jake Q26:30
I could really see like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and all of them just throwing a party. I would love to go there once.
J
Jan Ahlgren26:40
Yeah. Maybe we should meet there in matching short pant jumpers, you know what I mean? The old school, we'll hang out by the pool with martinis.
J
Jake Q26:52
Okay. We'll have martinis and be bad at golf. It'll be great.
J
Jan Ahlgren26:55
Absolutely.
J
Jake Q26:56
Yeah. It's a plan.
J
Jan Ahlgren26:58
Yeah, it's a plan. But who knows? We should do it.
J
Jake Q27:03
Yeah, absolutely.
J
Jan Ahlgren27:04
I'm serious. Let's do it. That would be awesome.
J
Jake Q27:06
I think it sounds great. Just to dive into the pandemic situation, as a guy who loves to travel, how are you handling that? Because you found your way to Paris.
J
Jan Ahlgren27:18
My feeling is we are going to have to find ways to manage the risks with the benefits that we need. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to go without a greater degree of travel. We're going to have to find ways of meeting places and hopefully doing that safely. What I felt with this pandemic was an enormous amount of gratitude. You realize how extremely fortunate you have been. In my lifestyle, you take for granted all these travels, all these visits. So I tried to turn it into something positive. I felt how spoiled we are. I've actually enjoyed not traveling so much and not chasing the next thing or getting these small highs from always visiting new places. I've really enjoyed being home with my family. It was a good break.
J
Jake Q29:10
Some of the simpler, deeper pleasures have come to the fore in this time. I think you brought up something, one of the reasons why I was excited you were going to come on here and why I love your fragrances. At a time where I'm not traveling as much, I'm able to travel through experiencing scent. I think the next one we're going to cover is one where it's a particular place. Am I right?
J
Jan Ahlgren29:47
125th and Bloom. There's a place that this is about. Scent is so closely related with memory. I think we can do a lot of traveling at our desk, in our bedroom, with our friends, smelling things. It's also good to drop the phone and really use your mind. It's an incredible tool and you can make your own journeys. Let your imagination go. It's also good sometimes to get bored, because that's when awesome moments of creativity happen.
J
Jake Q30:34
Absolutely. You know, when you're a kid and you got bored... Boredom is extremely underrated, especially for kids. I have two teenage daughters and part of my challenge is take away your damn phone sometimes because you're not bored enough. Even what you think is bored is not actually bored, and you need to dive inward sometimes. I remember I spent a lot of my life as a kid diving into here and it was rich times.
J
Jan Ahlgren31:06
I remember I was at the British Fashion Awards and I realized looking around, everybody's just filming the event. They're actually not listening to it. I captured myself also doing it. That was a wakeup call for me. Now when I walk in places I try to not be on my phone. I try to look at things, see people, meet people, see the buildings, see the beautiful things and not just the end goal. This whole thing with COVID, I've tried to use it as something positive and it's made me grow and appreciate things a lot more.
J
Jake Q32:04
That's awesome. Well said. So, let's smell 125th and Bloom, can we? You're half New Yorker, right? At least by blood or by birth.
J
Jan Ahlgren32:16
Yeah. I actually wish my mom spoke more English to me when I was little so I would have that New York. I lived in Harlem and Harlem has such a soul. Being a jazz fan, it was the place where I wanted to be. I really, really love Harlem. It is for the soul. I love the gardens in Harlem. I love the people sitting there on the stoop. Culture in New York is outdoor life, right? Yeah. I loved it. I really, really like Harlem.
J
Jake Q33:13
Well, it's cool. A tribute to Harlem. It really is.
J
Jan Ahlgren33:18
I try to capture the unique soul that it has, a deep-rooted soul, and that's why it is a very, very deep fragrance.
J
Jake Q33:30
It is very deep. Simultaneously, you get the garden and the floral, but then there's this city burning alive kind of scent underneath. What's all this stuff going on underneath this wash of flowers? There's a lot happening.
J
Jan Ahlgren33:57
There's definitely some dust in there. You know when you walk around New York and even for a little while and then you come back, you're like, I'm covered in dust.
T
TQ34:10
Jay and I spent much of our 20s and young age in lower Manhattan. We're Alphabet City kids, that was our stomping ground in the 90s, and for Jay, early 2000s.
J
Jan Ahlgren34:26
Oh, wow. When I first came, I lived on 10th Street and B, I think it was 10th.
T
TQ34:33
Oh, nice. We were between B and C.
J
Jan Ahlgren34:36
Oh, really? That's where I first lived, and then I moved up to Harlem. I ended up living on 132nd in the end.
T
TQ34:44
Oh, cool. Awesome.
J
Jan Ahlgren34:47
You can feel it. There's a lot of wood, obviously. We don't care about that with the flower. There's a lot of rose in it as well.
J
Jake Q34:58
What was the picture in your head? Because you said it's an art direction style thing. What's happening in the scene?
J
Jan Ahlgren35:05
You're out in your garden in Harlem and you're listening to a jazz record playing. You're outside having a barbecue. There's a lot of roses in the garden. People are discussing. You have the whole ambience. It's early spring, the first day of spring when you can see people. You can just see it in people's eyes that winter is over. Let's go out, but you still have that bit of cold. You have the rawness. This was the imagination I had. It really captures Harlem for its deep-rooted soul. That's why I wanted it to be so deep.
J
Jake Q35:56
It's beautiful. It's a beautiful fragrance.
J
Jan Ahlgren35:58
Yeah, it is. I'm very happy about it. It turned out well.
J
Jake Q36:03
The duskiness of the rose is such a great mix between the garden element and the soulful darker side of it. It's really awesome.
J
Jan Ahlgren36:15
I'm glad.
J
Jake Q36:17
I love it.
J
Jan Ahlgren36:18
It will perform. I'm pretty sure it performs very well.
J
Jake Q36:26
So, how far are you into the American launch? It's been a couple months, right?
J
Jan Ahlgren36:44
We were at Barney's for a long time, and then sadly it closed down. So now we have relaunched with a great partner in the US, a distributor who's now taking care of my brand. I feel very, very happy about it. We have great plans for the future. We're just starting the relaunch and we have some new exciting openings coming as well. It's Vilhelm Parfumerie in New York, so for me it's very important to have a presence in the US. In the beginning I was all alone and a small company, so it was perfect for me to start at Barney's. Now we're a bigger team, I think we're 12 people here now in Paris. We're really in a stage of growing and we're opening up our first boutique.
J
Jake Q37:50
Oh, cool.
J
Jan Ahlgren37:52
So the brief is, Pierre-Charles takes a spaceship journey that starts in the 1920s and then he goes forward.
J
Jake Q38:03
I love it. Your visions are so fully formed and so tactile. I'm already getting pictures. Can we talk about the bottle design for a second? They're beautiful. In a time where everyone's doing very clean, clean, clean, you've managed to harness a bit of that which feels nice and clean in terms of the label and the font and the cap, but the glass on the actual bottle is not the super clean lines. It's this crystal and it reminds me of my grandmother's fancy cabinet. Where did that come from? When was that moment?
J
Jan Ahlgren38:52
What I always do in the brand, I take a lot of inspiration from the 1920s. I briefed the designer, Pierre Dinand, that I wanted something that was new. I wanted it low with a yellow cap. And then I wanted this vintage element to it, so it would make you think of the past but also something that felt new and fresh. I think good design, when people approach it, they feel some kind of familiarity, like it's been around but yet it's new. That gives people confidence. If it's too new, we stay away. So I wanted to give this feeling of vintage and new at the same time. That's how I work with almost everything I do.
J
Jake Q39:51
It's great. Well done. I think you nailed that. We're huge fans. Our whole team here is obsessive. You have a prime spot in our apothecary, the fragrance boutique. You're the most art directed. It's the gem right now when you walk in.
J
Jan Ahlgren40:15
Oh yeah.
J
Jake Q40:17
They've got yellow everywhere. It's beautiful.
J
Jan Ahlgren40:20
Yeah. That's good.
J
Jake Q40:22
We had a friend, Greta's friend, who was supposed to get married, a big wedding on the east coast, and now it's a small celebration in Chicago. She wanted a new fragrance for her wedding, and she went into the apothecary for a fragrance consult and came out with one of yours. Good friend of mine, but it does have that feeling of... You ended up with Dear Py, I think.
J
Jan Ahlgren40:50
Yes. Yes. It's a great one. That brings you back to tea. It was based on the tea.
J
Jake Q40:59
That's awesome. Hey, I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about that there's a fragrance coming out soon that relates to our city.
J
Jan Ahlgren41:10
It is. It's Chicago High.
J
Jake Q41:13
Yeah. We're gonna have to have you back on. I hope you know you signed up for a two-part commitment.
J
Jan Ahlgren41:18
Absolutely. So Chicago High is, as I said, in the creation of my fragrances, I want them to be old but also new. I like them to have a strong backbone, but I also like to overdose a single ingredient that gives that kick and freshness. But in this fragrance, Chicago High, I want you to be taken back to the 1920s. That's when you had iconic launches like Shalimar, Mitsouko, Chanel Number Five, all these great fragrances. The 20s, everything was possible. We had this very positive mindset. The stock market was booming. Everything was roaring, that roaring 20s. And you had Chicago where it was really happening. And then you had another fellow over in New York, Mr. Gatsby. I'm sure he had a mansion in Chicago as well. I imagined a party at the Jay Gatsby mansion. It's the spirit of Chicago, the Chicago High, that I call this fragrance. I try to capture what I imagined the 1920s would smell like.
J
Jake Q42:47
I cannot wait. They call us the second city. I love Chicago. We're huge Chicago boosters. We were born here. But I would say Chicago doesn't get a lot of perfume love. It's not the city that people are often naming fragrances after. So I want to thank you on behalf of Chicago for shining a little fragrance spotlight on our city even in advance of smelling it.
J
Jan Ahlgren43:15
The Art Deco, there's a lot of buildings from that era. I've only been to Chicago O'Hare. I've seen a lot of photos, but I would love to go to Chicago.
J
Jake Q43:31
Well, now we have two plans. One is meeting in Palm Springs to chill out among the orange blossoms. And then the other one is once it's doable, you come to Chicago and let's go to our favorite speakeasy, the Green Mill, where we'll listen to some serious jazz and have a touch of that old Chicago. This was Al Capone's old bar. Now it's one of the best jazz clubs in the city. It's a magical little place. There's a piano behind the bar. They say there's a tunnel underneath the piano, which is how they used to escape from law enforcement into the sewers to get out to other places in Chicago going to buildings across the street. It's a cool place.
J
Jan Ahlgren44:33
I would love to go and I mean that. Absolutely. I would really enjoy it.
J
Jake Q44:42
Let's make it happen with an event. We've had some really great perfumers and founders come through our apothecary and do live appearances and we've had phenomenal turnout. We'd love to add you to that list and then celebrate at the Green Mill together. We should get Marcus. He's been on our show, the trumpet player.
J
Jan Ahlgren45:07
My friend Marcus. Yeah, he was the trumpet player in the Count Basie Orchestra.
J
Jake Q45:13
We'll get him at that event. That would be a cool blend.
J
Jan Ahlgren45:16
That would be great. That would be fantastic.
J
Jake Q45:19
Well, you already sold it. Hey, as we kind of wrap up, I want to ask you, do you have any sort of wellness or personal well-being routine or must-have? What's your secret to staying young and excited about the world?
J
Jan Ahlgren45:54
I think I am blessed with a very positive home. I've always had a positive, light spirit, not all the time, but most of the time I'm curious and I enjoy life. I think that's a bit of luck. I eat quite healthy. I've become vegan recently, which could also be a phase, I don't know, but I feel great doing it. I tend to walk everywhere. I love walking. That's probably what I do. I always walk. It's a great meditation for me. I don't do any yoga or nothing like that, but I walk a lot.
J
Jake Q46:47
Is that difficult in Paris?
J
Jan Ahlgren46:47
Yeah, it is a bit. That's probably why I did it, because I love a challenge.
J
Jake Q46:58
Humans are meant to walk, right?
J
Jan Ahlgren47:12
Humans are meant to walk. We're meant to walk.
J
Jake Q47:17
We were born with feet, not wheels.
J
Jan Ahlgren47:20
I love walking. It's really good for my head and it's meditative for me.
J
Jake Q47:29
I couldn't agree more. I walk to work and I just took a long walk today, much longer than most people would have driven. I love it. You have to navigate, you can't look at your phone. You have to look out and people watching is maybe the best part of being alive.
J
Jan Ahlgren47:55
Yeah. No, really.
J
Jake Q47:59
Yesterday I walked out of my house on my way to work. I live in Chicago along the Chicago River. I started to cross the street and there was a snapping turtle this big in the street. I probably would have run over it with my car, but instead I got to experience this amazing little dinosaur. Rescued it and let it go down at the river. I feel like I'm going to be smiling about that for the next three weeks.
J
Jan Ahlgren48:33
The power of walking. In New York, everybody walks a lot. They walk fast too.
J
Jake Q48:44
Extremely fast. Everything is fast. 120 to 125 beats per minute. If you're looking for music to walk to in New York, it has to be at least 120 beats per minute. That is the New York walking pace.
J
Jan Ahlgren48:57
I felt that when I came here and was waiting for stuff, I could feel I was used to a different tempo after living there so long.
J
Jake Q49:09
Relax, relax. It's hard when it's so crowded in New York. You have to put your blinders on and you're scanning when the lights are blinking so you never have to stop. You're always snaking your way there.
J
Jan Ahlgren49:26
But I love that. I also miss the tempo of it. There's a way to get back, you know.
J
Jake Q49:34
It's electric. It's awesome.
J
Jan Ahlgren49:36
Yeah.
J
Jake Q49:37
Yan, thank you so much for coming on. It was great talking to you. We're gonna link up your site.
J
Jan Ahlgren49:45
And the lights go out.
J
Jake Q49:50
Right. On that note, we will link up your site. We're going to link up all of your fragrances. If you're not in Chicago and can't stop in and see it, but you're curious about what you've heard today, we have samples available so you can test and then buy the fragrance that you want. Pick up the set, try it for a couple days, and then get the one that's best on your skin. Yan, thank you for joining us. Here I go, I'm going on the skin. Until Palm Springs and until Chicago High, we'll have you back on and we'll smell it together.
J
Jan Ahlgren50:47
Absolutely. I hope to meet you both guys in person.
J
Jake Q50:50
Thank you so much, brother. It was so nice to talk to you. Stay safe and thanks for spending part of your Friday night in Paris.
J
Jan Ahlgren51:00
Stay safe as well. Take care.
J
Jake Q51:04
Bye.