Meet Perfumer and Perennial Innovator Ramdane Touhami
The enfant terrible behind Buly 1803 on fragrance, Balzac and approaching life as one big improvisation at MANIFESTO 2024.
For MANIFESTO 2024, a selection of pieces designed by Ramdane Touhami’s Drei Berge Hotel and A Young Hiker are available for purchase at the festival and on GOAT.
“I'm a bit of a liar. ‘Fake it until you make it,’ as you say in English,” explains one of France’s most successful and celebrated creative entrepreneurs, Ramdane Touhami.
The serial multi-hyphenate refuses to follow the rulebook, garnering renown for his myriad projects across art, lifestyle, fashion and more. “Sometimes, you have huge failures, sometimes you have big wins,” he sagely notes. “Avoiding trends is wise, that’s how I surmise my way of doing things.” Instead, the print-obsessed Moroccan-Frenchman finds inspiration in the annals of historical literature. Internationally renowned beauty brand Officine Universelle Buly 1803 and the candle company Cire Trudon, originally founded in 1643, are two of his most acclaimed ventures.
Touhami’s latest project, Hotel Drei Berge, is presented through a Swiss chalet-style cafe at MANIFESTO 2024. The endeavor stems from his fascination with Élisée Reclus’ 1881 book, The History of a Mountain, and his journey to locate a specific valley mentioned in the text. This led him to purchase and restore a Swiss Alpine hotel from 1907, which reopened last year.
We visited Touhami at his new Parisian cafe, Drei Berge Utopia, and caught up with him just before the cultural festival.
How did growing up in the countryside shape you?
I’m still a countryside boy. I’m very connected to the seasons. It’s early June, and I’m very disappointed because I haven’t enjoyed nature enough this year. Soon the days will start getting shorter again. This is what I'm always looking at—how the plants grow, the trees, I'm obsessed with this kind of thing.
Is it true you were kicked out of multiple schools in your youth?
I hate people giving me orders, and it was pretty complex for the teachers because they give orders nonstop. I like to learn but not that way. I was a little bit of a bad boy, but I had very good grades, which is very strange. I had an attitude issue. I'm a big mouth. I insulted the teachers.
It looks like you turned out alright.
Maybe! What’s most important is health. I just did a checkup last week and they said that at my age they had never seen a guy with a stress level so low.
I never think about a project before I start. I just see the space and decide: Let’s do this, let's do that. All my life is a huge improvisation.
Ramdane Touhami
Wow, even with your schedule? Why do you think that is?
Because I won’t be surrounded by people I don't like. Some people accept bad things. I don't accept any attitude. I only do things I want to do. All the situations I put myself in, I chose them.
Have you always been this way?
Always. Not for a single second in my life have I worked for someone else. Never in a coffee shop, office, nothing. At 16, my brother went for a job for the summer, but I didn’t want to do something like that. Instead, I created a company that picked up medicine from the pharmacist for old people. It did very well. I sold the company at the end of the summer and made 10 times what my brother did.
One of your earliest entrepreneurial endeavors was the famous graphic tees you printed as a skater at boarding school.
The name of the label was Teuchiland, inspired by Stüssy. It’s very funny. After I was kicked out of all these schools, the only one that would accept me was a boarding school. So I arrived at this new school and one guy there was making T-shirts and he was the most popular guy and all the girls were in love with him. So I did my own T-shirt. It went crazy. All the people in all the high schools in the area wanted to buy it. And of course, I became super popular with the girls.
Tell me about your work with fragrance.
Scent has always been important. In the countryside, we grow up with different scents. I just found out by accident that I'm good with them. Someone asked me to help them with the oldest candle factory in the world, Cire Trudon. I didn't want to listen or watch what the other people were doing. I wanted to put all my own creative ideas into it. I was good at it and they were extremely popular. I created a new direction in smell and everyone copied me.
Can you expand on your process?
I avoid what other people look at. Everyone always goes to the same art opening and then guess what? Six months later, you see that same inspiration in many fields because everyone is looking at the same thing.
What’s the story of Buly?
It’s a funny story. I have a very well-known French politician friend, Arnaud Montebourg. He used to call me César Birotteau, a character from a Balzac book. I read it and it's a story of a guy coming from the countryside to Paris, who creates the most successful beauty brand. Because I'm curious, I look into how Balzac came up with his stories.
Apparently, he used to go and listen to the cases in court and write books based on them. César was based on Jean-Vincent Bully. I thought, “Wow, I love this story,” so I found out about the brand and its history. It had been a big deal in the 19th century. I got the name and made it happen. Now there are stores all over the world.
One day [LVMH founder] Bernard Arnault calls, asking me to sell the company. I did, and then I bought a house that was previously owned by the most famous French script writer. After buying it, I discovered a bookshelf full of Balzac books.
How did you approach the installation for your cafe at MANIFESTO? Was your process any different than how you usually approach projects?
I never think about a project before I start. I just see the space and decide: Let’s do this, let's do that. All my life is a huge improvisation.