Stora Skuggan
Stora Skuggan was founded by a group of five multidisciplinary artists – Anna Barkne, Tomas Hempel, Olle Hemmendorff, Jonas Nordin & Martin Nicolausson – who met in 2005 whilst studying together at Stockholm’s Beckmans College of Design. The five embarked on a journey of olfactive exploration, learning and experimenting over years, before officially launching in 2015 with their first fragrance: Fantôme de Maules.
Swedish for “the big shadow”, Stora Skuggan meticulously handcraft gender-fluid niche fragrances, each imbued with an enchanting narrative. Combining the essence of nature with the refinement of Scandinavian design, their six fragrances evoke an ethereal escapism. Drawing from the eclectic backgrounds of its founders, Stora Skuggan craft fragrances that seamlessly interweave cultural influence and theoretical underpinnings with an air of mystique – we encounter an intersection of Freudian analysis, Indian folklore, an nods to times long gone.
“We have not followed the traditional way to launch a perfume line by hiring established perfumers and design agencies and so on. We have done everything ourselves; every little detail has been formed by our hands.”
-Tomas Hempel, co-founder
In 2018, the label’s second launch, Silphium – built around an extinct plant used in Ancient Greece and Rome – was named a finalist in the Art and Olfaction Awards. Mistpouffer launched in 2019 after four years in development. The scent attempts to bottle the mystical, unexplained sounds sometimes heard along bodies of water, often likened to a cannon or sonic boom.
The fragrances are presented in sleek glass bottles with stoneware orb lids. Influenced by Scandinavian modernist design, the bottles simultaneously present the artistic divergence of ideas within the fragrance, whilst doubling up as a beautiful object.