Heritage
A house, in its own words
La Folie a Plusieurs emerged from Kaya Sorhaindo's experience within Berlin's art community and a conviction that fragrance could serve as an intermedia practice rather than merely a consumer product. The name itself carries medical weight, referencing the psychological condition of shared delusions, though for Sorhaindo it describes the collective spirit that arises when multiple perspectives converge on a single creative problem. He founded the label in 2014, establishing studios in Berlin and Paris, two cities whose cultural infrastructures have long supported experimental artistic practice. The founding concept centered on using fragrance to capture and share the works, thoughts, and experiences of artists, extending their practice into sensory territory that traditional media cannot reach. Early releases established the brand's unconventional vocabulary, presenting fragrances without conventional family classifications or pyramid structures. Instead, works appeared organized around conceptual frameworks tied to their artistic sources. The museum boutique channel proved essential to the brand's identity and reach. Rather than pursuing department store placement or independent perfume retail, Sorhaindo positioned the label within cultural institutions where visitors had already engaged with the art world. This strategy brought the fragrances to audiences predisposed to conceptual practice and positioned each perfume as an artistic object available at the point of encounter with other creative works. Collaboration with The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos demonstrated the label's capacity to work across artistic disciplines, applying the same interpretive methodology to cinema that had previously served visual art. The museum boutique distribution has expanded internationally over subsequent years, though the label maintains its studio practice in the original two cities. Each new release continues the founding commitment to extending artistic practice through fragrance, treating scent as a medium capable of communicating complex creative intentions to audiences beyond traditional art audiences.
Fragrance, for La Folie a Plusieurs, represents a form of presence rather than nostalgia. This distinction shapes the label's entire approach to working with artists and developing new scents. Rather than recreating an atmosphere from the past or capturing a memory, the brand seeks to extend an ongoing creative act into olfactory form. When Sorhaindo collaborates with an artist, the goal is not to produce a scented souvenir of an existing work but to create something that continues the artist's practice in a different medium. The wearer does not smell the museum or the film; they experience a continuation of the creative act itself. This philosophy separates the label from conventional fragrance development, where briefs typically specify desired associations or emotional responses. Here, the process inverts: the artist's work generates the conceptual framework, which then guides material selection and composition. The brand explicitly rejects nostalgia as a creative driver. No fragrance exists to remind wearers of a past experience or transport them to an earlier moment. Instead, each work maintains connection to living creative practice, inviting wearers into an ongoing artistic conversation rather than a closed historical event. The museum boutique channel reinforces this positioning. Visitors encountering the label within cultural institutions have already demonstrated engagement with contemporary art practice. They arrive prepared to consider fragrance as a medium worthy of conceptual attention, not merely a pleasant accessory. This audience understands that fragrance can carry intellectual content, that scent can extend rather than merely evoke. The label's fragmented naming conventions reinforce the philosophical framework. Titles like Me·Cha·No, Da·Cry, and As·Phyx·Io present words in states of dissolution, parts of speech separated by midpoints that suggest interruption, transformation, or incomplete communication. This linguistic approach mirrors the brand's core proposition: fragrance as a continuation of artistic work, not its replication or commemoration. Seek and Find Me suggest a fragmented narrative journey. Looking For Langston invokes cultural memory without nostalgia, connecting to the African American artistic tradition without sentimentality. Each title functions as a conceptual handle, preparing the wearer to engage with the fragrance as an artistic statement rather than a conventional perfume.