James Heeley

As a designer working on everything from product packaging to décor, James Heeley’s work was always on the line between avant garde form and carefully designed function, and so it was only natural that after meeting Annick Goutal, the UK-born, Paris-based Heeley would ultimately turn his interest towards fragrance. Intrigued by the unique combination of the technical and the artistic that goes into fragrance composition, Heeley taught himself the ins and outs of perfumery, studying the masters of the form in Grasse and Versailles, but also contemplating the ways in which the standard channels of the fragrance industry might inhibit true independence and creativity. Today, Heeley is widely considered one of the most innovative perfumers in the business, with every aspect of his products, from packaging to formula, designed 100% in-house.