Heritage
A house, in its own words
The brand emerged in 2021 with its inaugural release, The Great Batavia, taking its name from the colonial-era designation for present-day Jakarta. The choice of 1945 as the brand's namesake year is significant in Indonesian history: this was the year when Indonesian independence was declared, marking a pivotal transition from colonial rule to national sovereignty. The brand draws its creative inspiration from this transformative period, using scent to reconstruct the sensory landscape of that era. Project 1945 positions itself within the broader context of fragrance houses that use historical narrative as a creative framework. According to available information, the brand collaborated with perfumer Miroslav Petkov on at least one formulation. The collection has grown steadily since its launch, with six named fragrances released between 2021 and 2023. Each release maintains the thematic approach of anchoring scent to a specific Indonesian location and historical moment, creating what the brand describes as a scent-based historical archive. The geographic focus remains firmly on the Indonesian archipelago, from the cultural heart of Java to the eastern provinces of Maluku.
Project 1945 operates from a distinctive premise: that fragrance can serve as a vehicle for historical memory. Rather than describing scents in terms of dominant notes or mood associations common in the industry, the brand frames its creations around documented moments in time and place. This approach treats each fragrance as a kind of olfactory archive, inviting wearers to experience a reimagined sensory environment from a specific historical context. The creative direction suggests that places carry distinct olfactory identities that persist across time, and that these identities can be reconstructed through careful blending. The brand appears less interested in trend-driven fragrance creation than in building a cohesive body of work tied to Indonesian geography and history. This philosophy extends to the naming conventions, which avoid typical perfumery descriptors in favor of proper nouns and geographic references. The intention seems to be creating a series of scented chapters in an ongoing historical narrative centered on the Indonesian experience during the mid-twentieth century.