New York Abidjan

The story began with a conversation in Bali. Around ten years ago, we brought Fab Five Freddy to KU DE TA. He spoke with us about his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat and New York in the early 1980s.

Those conversations stayed with me. Years later, the connections between people, places, music, and art found another form in The Missed Flight, my homage to Basquiat. New York Abidjan grew from that artwork and the memories behind it.

In 1986, Basquiat travelled to Abidjan for an exhibition. In 1988, he planned to return to Côte d’Ivoire, where friends were waiting for him. His death in New York on August 12 interrupted that return.

The artwork imagines what might have followed: a journey left unfinished, an encounter, the possibility of another life. That imagined future is the artistic starting point of the fragrance.

The olfactory direction brings a cool mineral accord into contact with warm spices and deep woods. Bergamot, ginger, and black pepper open the composition. Dry cocoa and a discreet veil of incense deepen its heart, before vetiver, cedar, patchouli, amber resins, and musks bring warmth to the skin.

A woody, spicy composition in development. A meeting became a memory. A memory became an image. An image became a fragrance.