“Notre métier est basé sur cette notion de secret.” [Our profession is based on the notion of secrecy.]
— Jacques Cavallier, famed perfumer
What We Do Is Secret began in 2005 as the name of my sculpture studio in New York. Around that time, I started writing here — first about perfume, then architecture, photography, design, films, and the strange connections between them.
Born in New York and raised in Japan, I returned to America to pursue sculpture and became immersed in contemporary art before discovering another medium: scent.
Long before “olfactory art” became part of the perfume world’s vocabulary, I was already using the term online to describe experiments that existed somewhere between perfume, memory, atmosphere, and conceptual art. I eventually became known as one of the pioneers of olfactory art, collaborating with perfumers who shared the same instinct for exploration — no rules, no boundaries, only emotion and intuition.
But over time, my perspective changed.
Art can survive without pleasure. Perfume cannot.
That distinction became important to me.
Today, I no longer see perfume as art in the traditional sense. Perfume lives closer to the body and everyday life. It should seduce, comfort, obsess, attract, disturb, or become part of someone’s memory. It should leave a trace.
Perfume is simply perfume — and that is unique enough.
What We Do Is Secret® eventually became the umbrella for the fragrances I’ve created with perfumers since 2000 — projects such as S-perfume®, A Lab on Fire®, Monoscent®, and now WWDIS®.
This blog remains something else entirely.
A quieter and more unfinished space where I still leave fragments of whatever stays with me — architecture, images, scent, or thoughts that refuse to disappear.
People call me ノビ (no.bi).
I still prefer to stay behind the scene.
Visit the fragrance collection at wwd.is
RELATED ARTICLE: Blog Offers Behind-the-Scenes Look at Fragrance Creation (WWD, Feb 23, 2007)