Inside Elorea, a sleek new Korean perfumery in Manhattan\u2019s NoLIta neighborhood, whose name is a portmanteau of \u201celements\u201d and \u201cKorea,\u201d you will find paintings and pottery by Korean and Korean American artists, a cafe offering a chocolate and perfume pairing and shop attendants dressed entirely in black, eager to explain the brand\u2019s gender-neutral fragrance collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I\u2019ve never heard of a Korean perfume brand, I just figured it\u2019s going to be on another level,\u201d said Albert Chun, 36, a customer whose parents immigrated from Seoul to Oakland, Calif., in the mid-1980s. \u201cWe\u2019re such proud people,\u201d he added with a half-laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our heads, in everyone\u2019s heads, Korea is the capital of the world in terms of beauty,\u201d said Wonny Lee who, along with his wife, Su min Park, founded Elorea as an online perfumery business last year.<\/p>\n
Korean beauty, or K-beauty, is just one stream in the surging \u201challyu,\u201d or Korean wave, sweeping over the world through K-dramas, K-pop and Korean technology. This wave of cultural and material exports has helped South Korea transform itself into a global economic powerhouse.<\/p>\n
And yet, when Ms. Park, 35, and Mr. Lee, 36, walked through a department store in Seoul in 2019, they were surprised to find a lack of Korean perfume brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cKorea and Asia in general have very deep and rich relationships with scent, but it\u2019s just so, so underrepresented in the current market,\u201d Ms. Park said.<\/p>\n
With Mr. Lee\u2019s background in e-commerce and marketing at Samsung, the gaming accessories manufacturer Turtle Beach and the direct-to-consumer footwear company Greats, and Ms. Park\u2019s experience as a photographer and art director with clients including Ann Taylor, Alexis Bittar and Fekkai, the couple decided to create their own Korean perfumery.<\/p>\n
But what exactly constitutes a \u201cKorean perfumery\u201d?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to just slap, like, \u2018K\u2019 in front of it because we\u2019re Korean founders,\u201d said Mr. Lee, whose parents immigrated from Seoul to Queens in 1984. Ms. Park, whose family left Seoul for Brooklyn in 1998 when she was 10, agreed, noting how some beauty companies might call a product \u201cJapanese\u201d simply because they use cherry blossoms in their branding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to dig deeper,\u201d Ms. Park said. \u201cWe have to talk about our history. We have to talk about our culture and what it means \u2014 what the scent means.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything in the store rings with symbolism. The curved base of the shop\u2019s display table is modeled after a traditional Korean roof tile. The store\u2019s stark black and white color scheme expresses the Korean flag\u2019s philosophy of \u201ctaegeuk,\u201d or \u201cgreat polarity.\u201d The four scents in Elorea\u2019s foundational collection \u201cThe Elements,\u201d are inspired by the four trigrams adorning the Korean flag, representing earth, sky, fire and water.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Lee, the four perfumes in \u201cThe Elements\u201d mirror the four major olfactory classifications on typical fragrance wheels: floral (sky), fresh (water), woody (earth) and warm and spicy (fire). \u201cI was staring at the Korean flag, and I was staring at the fragrance wheel,\u201d Mr. Lee recalled. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018There\u2019s no way this can be; it\u2019s too perfect.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Park spearheaded Elorea\u2019s second fragrance line, \u201cThe Forgotten Words,\u201d basing the collection on words that are native to Korea but no longer in common parlance.<\/p>\n
The perfume called \u201cGentle Shower\u201d is redolent of the Korean word \u201cjambi,\u201d which, according to Ms. Park, means a sudden rain that allows farmers to rest. One of the perfume\u2019s top notes is perilla leaf, a minty, licorice-like herb frequently used in Korean cooking.<\/p>\n
For Ms. Park, Elorea provides an opportunity to reunite with the country she was estranged from when she was young. \u201cPart of me was always back at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Elorea allows Mr. Lee to cultivate a greater sense of Korean pride and identity as someone who, because of racism he experienced as a boy and his desire to fit in, didn\u2019t always want to be Korean growing up. He recounted a conversation he had with his friend, the chef Hooni Kim, 51, whose restaurant Danji was the first Korean restaurant ever to win a Michelin star, in 2011.<\/p>\n
Mr. Kim asked Mr. Lee, \u201cWhy are you so into telling Korea\u2019s story?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Lee responded, \u201cI personally feel like Elorea is my ask for forgiveness to my younger self, my deepest apology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple have intentionally incorporated the work of other Koreans and Korean Americans in their store, like custom drinks from the popular Korean coffee brand Gute Leute, and a bright blue painting by the Korean artist Son il hanging by the front door.<\/p>\n
More than just a perfume store, they hope that Elorea will provide an evolving, multisensory space to showcase and celebrate Korean culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to work with entrepreneurs, we want to work with artists,\u201d Mr. Lee said. \u201cBecause at the end of the day, their success will be our success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miya Lee<\/span> is the editor of Modern Love projects. More about Miya Lee<\/span><\/p>\n Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"