Q&A with Boyao Jan
Q&A with Boyao Jan - part I
D7.1: Please share with us your initial thoughts on choosing to join Perfumer H.
Boyao: At the time, I decided to leave luxury department store sales, wanting to switch to a different environment and field where I could more simply share products I genuinely love with customers.
Perfumer H is a fragrance brand that emphasizes craftsmanship, continuing founder Lyn’s love for natural materials while incorporating everyday objects and childhood memories. The brand’s blend of humanistic warmth and artisanal tone really drew me in.
D7.1: What qualities do you think a good fragrance should have?
Boyao: I think it should feel natural and wearable over time. Something you can use casually every day, regardless of season or occasion, where the scent feels like it’s part of you rather than announcing to others what you’re wearing.
D7.1: How do you usually recommend a suitable fragrance to customers?
Boyao: Perfumer H’s scents vividly capture natural elements. After smelling them, most customers share scenes from their memories or various associations. I recommend fragrances by chatting with them about their scent-related memories. I love helping people explore different olfactory imaginations, ideally letting them take home a scent they never thought they’d like—something entirely different from what they have at home.
D7.1: What connection do you see between fragrance and clothing?
Boyao: Before Perfumer H, I worked in clothing sales, helping customers style outfits for various occasions. Good fashion can transform a person’s aura, and fragrance works the same way—it can showcase different facets of personality and enhance an outfit. For example, many customers wear formal attire for work, so I might recommend a scent with a contrasting vibe to balance the seriousness. This way, the combination of clothing and fragrance can reflect unique taste and individuality.
D7.1: If you were to describe your personality or life attitude with a fragrance, which one would you choose and why?
Boyao: I’d pick Vetiver. It opens with grapefruit and lavender—bright, lively, and straightforward. The vetiver note gradually unfolds over time, finding harmony amid contrasts. The more you smell it, the more you love it. That aligns closely with my personality and approach to life.
D7.1: What resonance do you find between music and fragrance?
Boyao: Both are intangible energies that can unlock joy. Shortly after the store opened, around spring and summer, sunlight would stream through the window each day, shifting across every corner of the shop as time passed. That’s when I got the idea to create a playlist “for the Taipei store.” I shared the 9-hour playlist with the UK headquarters, and I was honored that the team loved it and wanted it played in stores worldwide. When making the playlist, I thought: If I were a customer walking in, seeing, hearing, and smelling something so wonderful, it would be a truly blissful shopping experience.
Q&A with Boyao Jan - Part II
D7.1: We’re shooting at your home today, and this space reflects your taste and care in every detail. Is there a special collection you’d like to share with us?
Boyao: Growing up, my life was quite nomadic, and I never had a stable home. I was lucky to find this place with a long lease, and then the pandemic hit, so I put more and more effort into decorating it. I wanted friends to feel more comfortable here than at any store or café outside. A special piece is the Yayoi Kusama artwork on the wall behind the living room sofa. It’s from a Kyoto Gion exhibition I visited before the pandemic—a piece of gauze, actually. I imagined ironing it flat and framing it for the living room, knowing it’d make me happy every time I saw it.
D7.1: How do you define your personal style?
Boyao: Outside of work, I love experimenting with different styles, especially since I’m someone who enjoys wearing bright colors. Being colorblind, I often wear shades others might shy away from, but I don’t really notice. My style shifts depending on the occasion or who I’m meeting, so it’s not fixed.
D7.1: In your daily outfits, is there a “signature item” that represents you?
Boyao: My buzz cut! I never wear hats, so I guess that’s my signature item.
D7.1: Is there a brand or person who particularly inspires your style or taste?
Boyao: My teenage years were in the ‘90s, and a lot of my aesthetic influences came from magazines. I’d buy Men’s Non-no and i-D every month—they really shaped my taste and approach to style. As for brands, I’d say Margiela. In my youth, I was fortunate to work as a salesperson at MMM under Mr. Margiela himself. Studying each collection’s pieces every day at work was incredibly rewarding.
D7.1: What do you think is the most important aspect of “taste”?
Boyao: Having your own perspective, not just following trends, and appreciating details rather than focusing only on the surface.
D7.1: If you were to describe your ideal life with a scene, what would it look like?
Boyao: I recently watched the movie The Room Next Door, and I’ve been drawn to the idea of living in a house that coexists and converses with nature. Big windows with sunlight pouring in at any moment, music playing loud, doing chores or zoning out—it’d feel great. A scene like that, relaxed and unhurried, where I could ignore the passage of time and savor the moment, is my ideal life.
Creative direction / Styling / Text @cheryl.kaocc
Photograph @minxuanhu
Production / Filmmaker @chenweishuan
D7.1 < Character Profile > Through the interplay of art, design, fashion, and lifestyle, we explore the relationship between people and clothing from a richer perspective.
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