The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The Jinmao Tower dominates Shanghai's Lujiazui skyline, a helix of glass and steel that has become one of the city's most recognizable structures. Zhufu's perfumer Meng Gu didn't set out to capture the building itself, but rather the moment of arrival at its uppermost observation deck. Stepping out into that rarefied atmosphere, leaving behind the noise and commerce of the city below, finding not grandeur but clarity instead of the expected spectacle. Above The Clouds translates that experience into scent: the shock of cold air, the sense of being held above the world, and beneath it all, a warmth that only reveals itself once you've stopped looking for it.
What makes this composition unusual is how it refuses the obvious path. This fragrance opens with bergamot and green cardamom, the citrus is brisk and immediate, but the cardamom adds a subtle warmth underneath, like sun visible through cloud before it actually breaks through. The combination creates a tension that feels intentional, a deliberate refusal to go where you expect.
The evolution
The opening stages are the most architectural thing Zhufu has done. Bergamot hits first, sharp, bright, immediate, pulling you upward into the composition with satisfying directness. Then the green cardamom arrives, adding warmth that shouldn't work against the citrus but does, creating a tension that's almost physical, like the moment before a door opens and you don't yet know what's on the other side. The transition happens gradually: the magnolia doesn't burst in, it materializes, as if it was always there and you simply weren't paying attention. Bamboo leaf and white tea settle into the background, keeping the florals honest, not powdery, not indolic, just present and accountable to something green and living. As the top notes fade, what remains on skin evolves into a clean, warm wood: sandalwood first, then cedar, then vetiver settling into the deeper layers like sediment.
Cultural impact
Above The Clouds arrived in 2024 as part of Zhufu's initial collection, a group of fragrances named for tea, forests, temples, and bamboo groves that suggests a deep engagement with Asian landscape and atmosphere rather than conventional commercial fragrance categories. The tower's inspiration grounds this particular scent in architectural space, in the experience of vertical movement and the perspective shift that comes from rising above the ordinary. Zhufu's philosophy keeps the reference from becoming merely conceptual, infusing the work with something more contemplative than most urban-inspired fragrances attempt.
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