Timothy Han’s eponymous London based luxury brand was founded in 2014. It began with reinterpretations of literature, as complex and provocative fragrances. His unlikely shortcut to perfumery was prompted by a friend’s explanation of cocktail engineering; the choice to break with conventional scent pyramids followed his concept of books reconstructed as olfactory chapters. As a former mountain guide turned code writer, translations of paradox had always come easily to book lover Han.
His path to design began in the Canadian wilds with his desire to create what he thought should exist—cooler technical clothing built for speed and mobility. Han quickly moved to Paris, where his formal education in fashion led to a stint at Dior’s couture atelier—quite a course in the power of branding. Close apprenticeship with John Galliano instilled a high value of spectacle and narrative in fashion, followed by another with late icon Andre Leon Talley, a master of alchemizing language in evolving fashion. His final tutelage, under Koji Tatsuno, taught Han the ideals of seductive concealment, and imperfect simplicity.
No encounter between reader and page, or skin and perfume, is ever the same. Authenticity resists definition, and no story lives if not diffused. Authentic rare editions for those that seek the library less ordinary simply made sense, and a capsule collection inspired by character muses from fiction naturally followed Han’s award-winning narrative led fragrances.
Ever a coder meets wilderness guide, Han’s sights are set upon an imminent reality in which the real and the virtual coexist within one tent. Past projects include collaborations with renowned artists, commissions for scenting large public spaces, fusional scent/tech events at SXSW, scenting catwalks for LFW, and AI immersive chambers for Brown’s Fashion.
Upcoming experiments in scent beyond the bottle include the brand’s nascent project with Ristband and Epic Games: a multi-sensory world building vision for Unreal gaming engine, and interactive, proximity-based perfumes designed to interact with each other when two people meet, creating original combinations exclusive to them. These and other conflations of scent, sound, fashion, and the virtual realm reflect its founder’s vision of a sensory literacy, built for speed, exploration, mobility, and heightened emotion.