Interview with Agonist Perfumes!

Welcome to their world

Christine & Niclas - the founders of Agonist Perfumes

When you are a crazy passionate lover, like me for instance, then you know no boundaries when it's all about perfume. Sometimes, I believe my passion will completely overwhelm my behavior. My latest love and discovery are AGONIST Perfumes that are coming from cold Sweden. On the one hand, I was attracted with their Scandinavian and fluid design, crystal clear bottles that are made with every detail. I thought that Kilian and Ramon Monegal have the most beautiful bottles, but no, AGONIST is going to this iron throne. 

I am very honored that I can feature this beautiful interview with two charismatic souls behind the brand, Madame Christine and Monsieur Niclas who are behind this brand. It's a perfume story of two people and their life, translated into various juices and some collaborations. They started without business plan, but ended as the successful perfume story. In me, they have a very big admirer and follower of their work. Please, enjoy this interview where you can meet those two persons more closely.

AGONIST Perfumes

1. Let’s assume that readers don’t know you that well. Can you please briefly describe yourselves – who is Christine and who Niclas?

Christine is a joyful person who loves to surround herself with beautiful things. She is half french and studied fashion at Studio Bercot in Paris where she lived for a large part of her career before moving back to Sweden. Her passion for scent has always been present in her life but escalated when she met her best friend in Paris who's father was a ”nose”. She suddenly found herself in his studio day in and day out discovering raw material and bombarded him with questions about fragrance and compositions. This was the starting point for her journey into the world of scent that later found its form when she met Niclas back in Sweden. 

Niclas is a passionate creative person working with visual art and graphic design. He is a designer MFA educated at HDK - Academy of Design and Crafts in Sweden and has always been drawn to the abstract dimension of scent. The way scent triggers memories, associations and experiences and goes beyond the visual and tactile. When meeting Christine it was clear that their different backgrounds was meant to come together and AGONIST was born. 

2. What gives drive in your life to both of you? I believe that passion is the fuel for life. What are your passions? Since you are both artists, did you learn to master the passions?

We are both very interested in things that inspire us. We travel, read, learn and try to experience as much as possible in our life. I guess we both have curious souls and share each others sense of taste and quality. Both of us have deepened and developed our different skills during many years in education and work which has given us tools and processes that we use to transform our ideas into projects and creative expressions. 

3. You are both coming from artistic environment which makes me wonder, do you have a daily routine or you leave the day go spontaneously? 

Our worklife and private life blend. We have high discipline and focus on our work but also make time for play and relaxation. Since we share our passion it is easier to combine it with family life, than if we would have had different careers. 

4. Christine, you studied in Paris. I did too. What do you think about Paris as the city? Did the city gave you all the inspiration for your work? How do you feel now in Sweden comparing to cultural capitol Paris? 

I love Paris. It is constantly changing but never loses its soul. It was there I did found my creative expression and became inspired. The contrast of living in a quiet place like Sweden is very nice since we do a lot of traveling in our work. It gives us space to contemplate and translate our impressions in our work instead of being constantly consuming new impressions. 

5. What was the turning point to create Agonist?

After an ongoing conversation about scent, design, art and creation the pieces of the puzzle suddenly came together during an intense working period back in 2007. Everything just made total sense and we developed the foundation of AGONIST and launched it at an exhibition at the Swedish Design Museum. After that it all went very fast and we were invited to exhibitions around the world and inquiries from department stores began to show up. In the beginning we worked very conceptual and in highly limited editions and could simply not deliver to the increasing demand of our products. It was not until 2012 when we completed our collection of hand crafted sculptures with our spray line that our company grew to what it is today. 

6. For what Agonist stands for? 

AGONIST stands for two forces becoming a third. For example: Me and Christine and our creation. - Our creation and the person experiencing it and what happens in there life and beyond. - Art and commerce, collaborations etc. It kind of represents everything we find interesting in our work.

7. Which part of Christine and Niclas are inside of Agonist perfumes? 

Our dedication to details and our inspiration. 

AGONIST Solaris capture

8. I like your bottle design a lot, I found it interesting and inspiring, captivating. Whose ide
a was that? Were you inspired by Scandinavian design when creating your bottle?

It was a result of a design process where every detail was taken into consideration. We wanted the juice to be the hero and create a bottle that represents the unique quality of the scent and the experience it will trigger in anyone that tries it. We are very inspired by the individual experience that each person have when trying our scents. The customer shall be able to understand the structure of the notes so they can follow the fragrance journey and be included. That idea resulted in the placement of the notes as a graphic pattern on the front for example. The magnet in the cap, the patented Pecure ( the different handcrafted color dots in the base) and proportions were all an expression of our sense of taste and expression. 

 9. What are the inspirations for Agonist perfumes? How do you find them? From where the inspiration comes from? What influences you the most?  

Since we live on an island in the Swedish Archipelago, the shifting seasons and the dramatic expression of nature itself influences us many times. Then longing for the light, the endless summer nights, the harsh cliffs and the smell of the first flowers coming up after a long and cold winter. We are also very inspired by contemporary culture, fashion, photography, art, music and film. Everything blends and we intuitively collect various ideas about scents and stories. 

10. How do you choose raw materials for your perfumes? Do you have liberty when talking with perfumer? 

We have an ambition to create a specific AGONIST feeling in all our scents. We want our collection and work to have an identity and signature that comes through even though all of our scents goes in different directions. We want people to recognize an AGONIST scent. Our process includes selections of raw material and close collaborations with perfumers that we work with who understands the tone we want in the scent. The longevity, the way they develop during the day and feeling they give when wearing them is all taken into close consideration. We regard our collection as an ”invisible wardrobe”. Within the collection you can find different moods, styles and characters that relates to your life and becomes another dimension for self expression. 

AGONIST Onyx Pearl composition

11. How hard it was to start a perfume brand in 2008?

Since we worked purely out of passion with no consideration of business plans and cooperate decisions it was not hard at all. We just presented what we had achieved and wanted to do and the rest just came along. But when you look back at it, it was probably impossible and only a maniac would pursue what we did. 

12. Why did you estimate that Intertrade can be a key partner? 

They understood us and the way we wanted to work. We considered many different options but for us this was the best. 

13. How will Agonist develop in future? Can you reveal a part of strategy? 

We will expand the brand and discover new areas where our creative platform and expressions will find new products, scents and collaborations to explore and present to the world. 

14. How high is perfume awareness in Scandinavia? Are Swedish people into perfumes like yours or more in mainstream market?

There is no tradition of perfume in Scandinavia and people has not really considered it as something beyond the tax free shops and the big brands. But since the desire for unique things and demand for quality before quantity has increased the interest for quality fragrance has become something that more and more people want to discover. They are aware about their interiors, fashion, lifestyle, food and wine so now they are beginning to understand that fragrance is an amazing thing to discover.

First of all, I want to say a thank you for letting me experience your world Christine and Niclas, it's an honor to me. Secondly, thank you for this beautiful interview where you have let to meet you more deeply!

Juraj, BL'eauOG