Interview: Carlos Huber, the creative force behind Arquiste

Interview with charismatic man, Carlos Huber

Arquiste fragrances

Those perfumes were captivating from the first moment to me. Now that I am out of Paris, I miss the chance to sniff them every day. It is the first perfume brand with strong images behind some creation. Later, that was introduced by Atelier Cologne who is having set of inspirational photos for perfumes. I am very happy to present you the interview with the man behind Arquiste, Mister Carlos Huber.

Mister Carlos Huber

What intrigued me about Arquite was its look. The presentation and the way the perfumes look reminds me of baroque, of glorious halls of temples in Paris with golden ornaments. When you enter Napoleon's tomb, you admire the grandeur and the beauty of details. Arquiste bottles are like a potion in the oval bottle and golden details. 

Arquiste is very known for several creations, among others for Aleksandr, Flor y Canto and Achitect's Club. But above all, for his candles that were made in collaboration with famous wax maker - Cire Trvdon. Among the critics, the brand stands very well with positive reviews. Carlos is an architect for preservation and that is when the love for perfumes happened. You rarely meet someone from that branch and that makes him interesting too. It must be that he has put his skills and experience in this brand. That is why Architect's Club has been made. 

Being an interesting and creative person, Carlos Huber is the suitable co-talker. I am very happy and honored to have him featured here, on BL'eauOG.

 

Inspiration for Aleksandr

1) Dear Carlos, I would like to thank you for taking your time to do this written interview for BL’eauOG. How would you describe yourself shortly? What are your passions, what drives you, what do you do in your free time? Are you still working as an architect or dealing only with Arquiste? 

How do I describe myself shortly…Tough question, but I’ll try my best. I’m a passionate person with a lot of joy for life, and a lot of love for the beauty of art, nature, architecture and the good in people. I’m a good student: I love to learn things – new things, new challenges but also old tricks…I like working hard to be good in something, to know something in depth. I love my family and friends passionately, and I try to be happy and positive in life as much as possible. As far as my career- I’m devoted full time to developing ARQUISTE. I’ll always consider myself an architect, because of the way it has shaped me, the discipline It gives me and the point of view I have in design, development and project management. And of course I will definitely work in architectural and conservation projects as they come along. 

2) You are an architect specialized in preservation. In what point of life you decided to make your perfume brand?

 I’ve always been sensitive to smell and serendipitously, I met a lovely person who eventually became a good friend, her name is Sophie Bensamou. Sophie is a fragrance evaluator – which to but it simply and explain the objective role they have is to say they are the mediator between a designer and a perfumer. Like the sommelier between the vineyard owner and the winemaker. The more she shared about her work, the more I was fascinated with fragrance development. Later, when I moved to New York in 2006, I was hanging out with some French friends and talking to this one person who turns out to be a perfumer. After finding out where I’m from he says: “Oh, I’m friends with a girl who used to live in Mexico City, but she’s originally French. She just moved here, her name is Sophie Bensamou. Turns out we all worked nearby and the three of us started going out to lunch together. Then Sophie in turn introduced me to perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, and immediately he and I are cracking up. We became instant friends. I would always pester him about questions about fragrance. And he said: “If you’re really interested, I’ll give you classes.” So, I took the offer gladly and did a year and a half of classes with him. After some time studying perfume – I saw there was an interesting similarity between my work as an historic preservation architected, restoring an old building’s significance through a new design or restoration plan, and a perfumer, evoking a certain mood, memory or experience through his own pallet of materials. I thought to myself It would be amazing to restore an olfactive experience far away in time and geography through historical research, through the selection of raw materials mentioned in the sources… and that’s when it all started. 

3) For what does Arquiste stands for? 

ARQUISTE came through a bit of word play – combining Architecture and History. It sounded a bit like ‘Artiste’, so it was a nice association. It sounded good in French, English and Spanish and people responded to it when we tried it out. 

4) You used very interesting names for your perfumes. Were you inspired by your professional background? What was your trigger?

 As far as the names of the fragrances, each one needed to focus on the particular story behind it, and also communicate a bit of what the scent was going to smell like. So they are each in the language of the place they evoke, and they reference the story behind them, as well as their ingredients in some cases. So the florals involve the word ‘flower’ in different languages, Aleksandr is indeed a dandy, very old-world Russian masculine scent, and Anima Dulcis, well, it has a sweet soul. Nanban, the latest one, is an old sino-japanese word meaning ‘southern barbarian’ an old term for the idea of ‘foreign’ – which is perfect, because all of the ingredients in the formula where commodities exported to Japan in the 16th century…It’s also a little bit of a shape shifter: an Oriental scent constructed with a Western point of view, and vice-versa. 

5) Are you proud of some perfume in Arquiste range in particular?

Nanban and The Architects Club – one of its complexity, uniqueness and power, the other for its easy to please beauty and addictiveness. Both for the contracts they play – warm and cool, dark and light, evocative yet contemporary. And both because they are from the two perfumers I’m most grateful for Rodrigo and Yann. 

6) You started with perfumes, but you also introduced candles with famous wax maker. How did happen that collaboration?

My first candle was “Merida” the special edition we did for Cire Trudon. It was their longest running collaboration and we were all very proud of it. It came about as the brand director and myself had met and felt there was a connection between the historic concept in both brands. It was a great experience, and with that experience I’ve been able to launch our own collection of ARQUISTE candles this last November. 

7) You are on every social network and you are quite popular, but you are never on perfumes fairs if I am not mistaken. Why is that? 

Thank you for that. It’s certainly not a popularity contest, though it’s nice to see the response of course. I just love sharing pictures about what I see or do, especially relating to architecture, fragrance and the places I travel to. As far as perfume fairs, I think you may be a bit mistaken. I always attend Pitti Fragranze and have done Esxence at Milan once, and Elements in NY a few times. Do keep in mind ARQUISTE has been around only since 2011…but since then every year I attend one fair or another, depending on our focus. 

8) Have some other perfume brands inspired you when creating Arquiste or you had only your path to follow?

Of course – Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle is a beautiful collection. And not only the brands but the creators. I really respect and love David and Kavin, the husband and wife team behind DS & Durga, Neela Vermeire, Yosh, etc. Not only for their perfumes, but for the passion they have for what they do. REAL perfume people tend to be very joyous and positive…It’s not about competing against each other, it’s about finding happiness in what we do.

9) Why did you choose only Rodrigo Flores Roux and Yann Vasnier as your perfumers? Is there some special link?

As you saw in the beginning of the interview, they were the ones to introduce me to the world of perfume, to teach me and mentor me. The way we work now is very close, very productive and full of fun – so I’m very grateful for that. I also think that working with them creates a thread of continuity in the collection, a ‘signature’ feeling.

10) Which perfumers do you appreciate in general?

Rodrigo and Yann of course, but also Calice Becker, another good friend. I also love the work of the master Carlos Benaim.

11) If you could choose, which perfume would you put in Arquiste line? A perfume from another brand? 

I can’t say that…I admire, love and wear perfumes from other houses, but I would never say I would ‘put’ it in the ARQUISTE collection. Simply because each perfume belongs to it’s own family, it’s own creators…I wouldn’t take that away from them and obviously, as you know now, signature is very important to me, it just wouldn’t have the same signature, however much I admired and loved it. 

12) Is there a new line or new perfume coming out soon? 

YES - stay tuned for this September. I’ll be at Pitti Fragranze unveiling two exciting new fragrances.


Juraj, BL'eauOG