Heritage
A house, in its own words
Ricardo Ramos grew up hearing stories of scent from his paternal grandfather, a Colombian horseman who prized the aroma of leather and pasture. After moving to Spain, Ramos entered the fashion world, designing garments that often featured textile details inspired by his South American roots. In 2004 he launched the series AGUA DE BARCELONA while living in Barcelona, marking the first public expression of his artistic perfumery vision. A few years later he partnered with perfumer Jorge Lee, merging Ramos’s narrative focus with Lee’s technical expertise; the collaboration is documented in a 2022 Scent Split feature that traces the brand’s 25‑year journey. By 2018 the house had expanded beyond Spain, presenting a combined fashion‑perfume showcase at Berlin Fashion Week, where Ramos wore a silk kimono paired with his own fragrance. The brand settled in Granada, a city whose Moorish heritage supplies a rich palette of historic ingredients. From this base, South American formulators in Granada and Istanbul develop new compositions, a process highlighted in a 2021 interview that describes the cross‑continental team’s role in translating regional stories into scent. Over the past two decades the house has released more than a dozen fragrances, each anchored to a specific year and theme, building a catalog that reads like a chronological museum of olfactory art. Ricardo Ramos approaches perfumery as a form of storytelling. He selects raw materials that once defined trade routes across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, then reinterprets them through a contemporary lens. The brand values authenticity, insisting that each ingredient carries a documented provenance, whether it is Andalusian orange blossom harvested in spring or Turkish rose oil distilled in the early morning. Ramos believes that scent can evoke memory, so he designs each fragrance to trigger a specific historical moment or personal narrative. The house avoids generic claims of innovation; instead it highlights concrete practices such as sourcing ambergris from sustainable marine farms and partnering with local cooperatives for citrus extracts. Transparency guides the creative process, and the brand shares formulation notes on its website, inviting enthusiasts to explore the chemistry behind each note. Community also matters: the team encourages dialogue with collectors, using feedback to refine future releases while preserving the original artistic intent.