If you've never heard of AVESTAN, you're forgiven — the elusive fragrance brand eschews advertising and offers only one fragrance, purchasable at a single brick-and-mortar store in London.
Five years after its founding, AVESTAN is taking a rare step into the spotlight to debut its second perfume, PETRICHOR. But there's a catch: It's not actually for sale.
Instead, PETRICHOR will function as an experience. On Thursday, the scent will perfume designer Robert Wun's couture show in Paris.
Attendees of the show have already received an invitation featuring the fragrance: spritzing the seemingly blank card with PETRICHOR reveals the show time and location.
The collaboration was a labor of love for Wun, who was equal parts moved and inspired by AVESTAN's unconventional backstory.
The brand was launched by Deciem, a family of beauty brands that includes The Ordinary, as the company struggled to process the unexpected death of its founder, Brandon Truaxe.
Before his passing in 2019, Truaxe had created several unreleased fragrances. To honor the boundary-breaking entrepreneur, best known for pioneering beauty's "price transparency" movement, Deciem opened the AVESTAN store, where one of his archived perfumes would be sold.
Deciem saw AVESTAN as a heritage-driven rather than commercial-driven endeavor, hence its decision to forgo marketing, advertising, and influencer gifting.
It's the definition of a passion project, something that resonated with Wun, whose latest couture collection, "FOR LOVE," is all about the things we hold dear.
"I was captivated by Truaxe’s story, and the meaningful way that his founding team has held his art since his passing," the designer tells Highsnobiety. "The legacy of his love deeply connects with me — it carried the same chemistry as the collection we were creating."
After partnering with AVESTAN, Wun was given the opportunity to browse the brand's library of unreleased scents, which was carefully curated by Truaxe.
Wun immediately gravitated towards PETRICHOR — according to the designer, it reminds him of "the specific moment when rain hits dry earth" — and selected it to scent his couture show.
For a fleeting moment, attendees of Wun's show will be able to experience the fragrance, which won't be sold commercially, as it wafts down the runway. Each guest will also receive a small bottle of the scent, an olfactory reminder that our time on earth is as fleeting — just like a spritz of perfume, it cannot be grasped.
