Love the smell of flat pack furniture and meatballs? You’re in luck, because Byredo’s newest fragrance collaborator is your favourite purveyor of affordable Scandinavian home goods. The Byredo x Ikea collection is set to launch in 2019 with “a democratic approach to smell.”
Byredo founder Ben Gorham took to Instagram to announce the collaboration with an image captioned “SCALE.” Ikea made its own announcement via a blog post promising… well, we’re not actually sure. “It’s still a surprise,” says the post, “but we can all expect something scented.”
“I feel people just don’t reflect enough when it comes to scent, but smell is a very relevant part of our life and also the home,” Gorham said in a statement. “To collaborate on this idea of ‘invisible design’ with Ikea, getting people to think about smell is very exciting. I enjoy their openness to new ideas and the experimental nature of what we’re doing.”
There are few hints about what the eau de Ikea will smell like, thought the blog suggests it might involve the retailer’s Swedish cinnamon buns. For his part, Gorham says the collaborators are “trying to develop a ton of smells enforcing the idea that everyone has a different relationship to it, and nothing is right or wrong.”
Byredo is widely known for its pricey fragrance products (US$80 for a candle, US$150 or more for a perfume), making it an unusual partner for the notoriously-affordable Ikea. We’re left with two scenarios: either the collaboration will successfully “democratise” smell with an unexpectedly economical price for Byredo, or smelling like Ikea will cost more than shopping there. We’ll find out which it is when the collection drops in 2019.
