‘I’ve had two lives’ – first basketball, then make-up: Ben Gorham of Byredo on his pivot from playing pro sport to founding a beauty brand
- Former basketball player Ben Gorham established Byredo in 2006 as a luxury fragrance label, before expanding into body care, candles and cosmetics
- He reveals how he made the pivot when he graduated from university, how perfume became ‘an obsession’ and how he is enjoying experimenting with make-up
Ben Gorham is not your average beauty brand founder.
The 45-year-old former basketball player is the mastermind behind Byredo, which he established in 2006 in his native Sweden as a luxury fragrance label, before expanding into body care, candles and – more recently – cosmetics.
“I had no experience when it came to perfume, but I became interested in this idea of smell as a medium and in the connection between memory and smell, and I asked this perfumer to help me put together a creative project and the interest grew into an obsession.”
That obsession led to a global company, with stores around the world. And now it is entering a new growth phase, with Spanish luxury conglomerate Puig having acquired a majority stake in the brand earlier this year.
Gorham believes that his unusual backstory has been an asset as the company has developed. “Byredo had a very creative origin and then it became very commercial as a vehicle – fragrances that lived within the context of the beauty industry,” he says.