There are many enjoyable ways to enhance shared experiences and recall pleasant memories. Some of these things are art, music, sound, food, and fashion, all able to transport us back to a time of convivial conversations and shared experiences with friends and family. Frederick Bouchardy of Joya Studio would likely add scent and fragrance to that list.
Fragrance design is a special art form, and fragrance itself is integral to identity for many people. “We are all aware of its emotional and physiological impact,” Bouchardy explains. Frederick Bouchardy runs one of the finest fragrance houses in the world, Joya Studio, based in Brooklyn, New York. Bouchardy has been making bespoke scents for designers, artists and leading brands since 2006. His fragrance house began as a small collection of scented candles born out of a desire to fuse new, original fragrances with modern, sustainable raw materials and forward-thinking packaging. Since its inception, Joya has designed and produced distinctive scented artifacts with an ethos of balance and beauty using simple, locally-sourced raw materials and ethical production practices.
Joya’s fragrances blend both essential oils and aromas that synthesize molecules found in nature, capturing the essence of living flowers, plants and herbs at their most vivid. In terms of its production process, fragrance and base components are sourced locally and liquid porcelain slip is developed and manufactured in Upstate New York. Packaging is all made in America, and each piece is crafted by hand in the beautiful studio in Brooklyn.
In 2016, Bouchardy opened a flagship—a cool retrofitted 19th Century Clinton Hill garage – establishing Brooklyn’s first industrial perfumery while also providing unique events and scent experiences for curious culture vultures. Joya’s location is part retail storefront, part operational facility and part event space for tours, workshops and interactive art installations. So far, Joya has hosted an NYCxDesign event with an installation by Taylor & Miller, a book reading with Sarah Colton, and a team building scent design session with Kiehls, among others.
The hybrid studio space launch garnered lots of press for its gorgeous facade with features in Vogue, The New York Times, WWD, Wallpaper and Hypebeast. To add to its cool factor, the space was also a Prix Versailles Special Prize for an Interior winner, a Building Brooklyn Award winner, an honoree in the Interior Design Best of the Year and NYCxDesign Awards—and received an honorable mention from the American Architecture Prize. Joya’s spot is definitely a place to visit this summer!
The company’s aim is to explore the invisible art form of scent by designing products that delight and challenge possibilities at the same time. In order to do that successfully and creatively, Joya collaborates across myriad creative disciplines to form a singular vision with a shared scented spirit. Diverse works emerge in various guises under the Joya name, in collaboration with artisans, and commissioned by emerging and established designers worldwide. Joya works with masters of their crafts in different but complementary media, with the hopes of harnessing and translating their visions and learning from the process.
For example, Joya partnered with the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group to preserve scented moments arising from each of Chef Thomas Keller’s restaurants since The French Laundry first opened. The backbone of the partnership stemmed from the concept that restaurants should be gathering places, destinations to catch up with family and friends, commemorate special moments and make new memories – but a fine meal in a restaurant is made up of so much more than the food. Laura Cunningham, Vice President of Branding and Creative Development for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, sought a way to preserve these sense memories. Understanding the layers of care and attention that go into the guest experience, she pursued a partnership with Joya who would capture these layers for guests to take home. “It was a deliberate and beautiful journey,” says Bouchardy. In a two-year-long collaboration, Bouchardy and Cunningham worked to find a balance among more than 120 raw materials that would encapsulate the place, time and feeling behind The French Laundry, Per Se, Ad Hoc and Bouchon. The scented candles were then built from scratch in a process reminiscent of fine perfume-making. “I think food and fragrance are similar in the way that they transport you to a time and place. Our scents are based on the elements of each establishment, whether those be menu ingredients, components of architecture and ambiance, landscape environments or historical nuances,” says Cunningham. In line with the restaurants’ philosophy of not wasting and using all the trim, each of the components of the candles incorporates a sustainability factor. From the organic paint, recycled paper and glue-less bottoms of the boxes, each decision reflected both partners’ commitment to sustainability.
Joya pursued another partnership with New York-based artist, Camilla Engstrom to create the “Naptime” candle series. The series is inspired by three different stages of sleep and features one of Engstrom’s signature artworks. Joya also recently dabbled in the cannabis space by partnering with female-driven company, House of Puff. The brief called for a smoker’s candle—but not too on-the-nose. Joya landed on an evocative scent and simple design to enhance, not overwhelm, the smoking experience.
Joya is popping up on the art scene, fusing fragrance with fun and associating scent with sophisticated moments. Check out the flagship this summer and indulge in the many artful aromas the studio has to offer!
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Photos by Joya Studio // Joya Studio Instagram.
