79. Chronicling Space & Time (& Trauma) Through Scent (w/ Chronotope Founder Carter Weeks Maddox)
If you made potions with your parents' beauty products as a kid, congrats there is a 99.999% chance you are now a fraghead. Today's guest went one step further -- from potion-making to perfume-making. Chronotope Founder and Perfumer Carter Weeks Maddox is in the Perfume Room today! Though Carter is an entirely self-taught perfumer, the lens through which he creates is backed by an MA in Critical Theory. He wrote his thesis on manifestations of the chronotope within women's postwar life writing and his fragrances in many ways exist as the olfactive manifestation of his studies. We discuss issues of colonialism in scent culture, how Carter reclaimed (and recreated) smells of his personal trauma (for profit hehe), the notion of fragrance as performance art, as well as the question at the heart of it all: for whose gaze do we wear scent? FRAGS MENTIONED: La Perla My Day, Frederic Malle Iris Poudre, OURSIDE Nostalgia, PHLUR: Tangerine Boy, Lost Cause; DSH L’Or{ris}, Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose, DSH: Special Formula X, The Absinthe Drinkers; Balmain Jolie Madame, Halston, Balmain Vent Vert, Chronotope Intra Venus, Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Brut, Aramis, CK Obsession for Men, Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, Giorgio by Giorgio Beverly Hills, Polo Green, Chronotope: Buen Camino, Nanas; Curve, Adidas Moves, Azzaro Chrome, Chronotope: Playalinda, Spite EDP; Bal de Versailles, Chronotope Spite EDT, YSL Paris, Effronte et Evocateur SHOP THIS EPISODE: https://shopmy.us/collections/106298 FOLLOW CARTER: @chronotope_perfume SHOP CHRONOTOPE: chronotope-perfume.com FOLLOW PERFUME ROOM: @perfumeroompod (IG) @emma_vern (TT)