JUST A TOUCH

Ever since creating his eponymous brand in 2019, David Roelen has been intent on challenging what we know about fragrance. Using the transformative power of scents to become an extension of the self, Roelen Pefrume defines itself by foregoing any pre-existing social lens on perfume, instead favouring personal development. Having released eight unique scents until now, the German brand has now collaborated with us at LN-CC to create their latest fragrance – Touch.

Inspired in-part by the nightlife of Dalston – the home to our London store where the fragrance makes its debut on July 9th – Touch is a testament to the historic club culture along one of the city’s most sweat-filled streets. Evoking intimacy in the dark, it combines an eclectic array of notes including frankincense and sage to channel the feelings of contact. Simply put, this is the smell of a good time.

Ahead of our London store launch party, David spoke with us about his brand and the creation of our collaborative scent.

This is only your ninth scent so far, so we appreciate how special it is to have this collaboration with you.

Yeah, me too. I think for me, collaboration has always been part of the whole greater idea and the brand, and LN-CC was one of the first partners that I had back in 2019 when I just walked into the store and started to talk to one of the team. Then suddenly everyone was downstairs in the store – in the old style before the renovation, before COVID – that turned into a wild launch party.

From there, I think this partnership became more of a friendship situation. It felt natural to me to work together, you know – it had to happen.

Your perfume journey really began off the back of a conversation with a stranger in London. Does it feel cyclical to have this launch in the city with us now?

Absolutely, both in general and when I think about the last seven years. Everything that has happened since the launch in London, or the years before that when I met [that stranger,] I feel that these seven years were a pure learning curve and I'm at the beginning again.

So, launching this now somehow feels like a fresh start.

When we discussed the creation of this scent, we wanted it to smell like Dalston – a little bit like sweat, hedonistic, reminiscent of your favourite club night. You came up with a combination of grapefruit, ginger milk, ylang ylang, sage, frankincense, and musk  – What makes this the scent of LN-CC?

I for sure could relate with a strong background in club culture and LN-CC has a strong background in that same culture, maybe in a different way – Berlin and London have very different night life cultures, as we all know.

The brief at this point felt more centred around a place – the darkness. I thought that I had somehow covered this in my line with The Door, which is this homage to the doors – the gatekeepers of clubs – and I wanted to see if we could divert or explore a different side of that.

I suggested to work around the idea of proximity, intimacy – people coming together. For Touch, it just made sense to do something that is playful, positive, and sexy at the same time. Something that can work before the party, during the party, or after the party.

Why the name Touch?

There is some idea in fragrance that you have certain categories, like bigger groups for smells. This felt to me like a category on its own – something that is about skin, closeness, something that can work on not only one person, but on two people. So yeah, I think getting together, touching each other, if intentionally or unintentionally, to be together – it just made sense.

With your perfumes, you’re trying to evoke a feeling or an emotion. When you have the specific feeling in mind, what’s the first step you take in looking to translate that into a scent?

So first of all, I want to say that I work with fantastic perfumers together that understand me, that help me to translate my ideas into the highest level of molecular chemistry in that sense. In this case, Adib, that I work with – we’re the same, we just speak the same language.

With Touch I didn't think about a location. I thought about how I feel when I go out and what I want when I go out. I think that about other people – why is everybody here? Like, what brings us together? I also think about unity and belonging and feeling safe and feeling liberated and free – all these parts. I think that's what I take to the laboratory.

Then I start smelling certain ingredients and formulating my ideas in words, in the name, and often playlists of music – because I think that music is very emotional – and the visual, which somehow helps with orientation or the impression, you know.

You’ve described your process as involving documents of references, from images to music. What was on the mood board for Touch?

I kept it pretty simple. This time I also just felt heard because the person that I work with also loves to go out, and we had a mutual understanding of what this can be and what people need.

You know, when I started working with scent, I didn't have a background, but at first, being a creative, it was about my idea, and it was about my creation. Now, I'm thinking about what happens after a person selects a scent for themselves. Like, it's their journey and it's completely out of my hand. It's not about my idea anymore. Maybe it helped them to connect with the scent, but after that, there's a huge world that is just coming. I think being respectful to that is important and it informs the way we work.

If you could choose a track to describe this fragrance, what would it be?

Speechless by Agoria.

You’ve outlined the importance of challenging stereotypes, particularly around the relationship between gender and fragrances. How do you combat these pre-existing notions?

These days, my way of thinking is going further than that because the last few years, I've been travelling a lot and have been visiting very different regions of the world.  In general, I just believe that scent is some sort of expression of personality and identity, and it is absolutely non-gender related. I have a pretty strong desire to create fragrances that are not only perceived as unisex, because this comes with a certain neutrality, which I find too desexualized, maybe. Scent – it is a tool. It's meant to connect some things.

I think we've all been educated and brainwashed with a very particular idea, to see men as the strong providers and women as their pretty accessories. That story just didn't make sense anymore for me back in 2018, and it still doesn't make sense for me. I think nowadays we just see a broader and a wider understanding of that, but there are still cultures in which a very clear separation of gender is the norm, and I think it's also fine that cultures hold this precious to them.

But if it comes to perfume – I think that perfume is a form to express and expression is usually sharing your idea, your values and your personality with the world. This is genderless, and in that sense scents should be genderless.

How did you develop your interest in scents? Did growing up in Germany have any influence?

I grew up with my single Mom and she was very, very interested in fashion, like, she had great style. Next to my room, there was her room – she called it the office – which was basically a huge storage stuffed with beautiful vintage clothing, with books, with fragrance samples – and I wasn't allowed to go in there... so I would always go in there.

I made her things mine, in a way. They became my toys. My favourite things were the small sample vials. She would send me to perfumeries from the age of four because she was broke, to get more of those samples. So, I guess I have this early childhood relationship with perfumeries, with beauty in general, and growing up with only my mom – a very strong connection to my feminine energy. So, I feel very secure navigating the side of myself as a straight man also.

I’m going out tonight – how many times and where should I spray?

So, usually I answer 3, but I think with this one I answer 5.

Two in the front, one in the neck, then I love to wear an open shirt and spray inside on either side – like puff, puff.