ts first permanent brick-and-mortar space at 113 Crosby Street in the fashion and fragrance-loving area of New York City’s Soho neighborhood.  Inside Retail connected Vicken Arslanian, the founder and president of Europerfumes, CEO of Twisted Lily and “re-founder” of Commodity Fragrances to learn more about what the fragrance industry’s comeback kid has next in store.  Inside Retail: What inspired you to purchase Commodity in 2019 and become the brand’s “re-founder”? Vicken Arslanian: I was lucky that the opportunity to purchase Commodity sort of fell into my lap.  As a distributor of niche perfumes for the past 15 years, I’ve grown super creative, opulent, and artistic brands in our portfolio such as Montale, Mancera, Roja, Vilhelm, Juliette has a Gun and a dozen others. While our brands were about creating an exclusive experience, Commodity was focused on taking a more elemental and inclusive approach. To be honest, I was always sort of jealous of what they [Commodity] were doing.  IR: In a highly saturated industry such as the perfume market, why do you believe that Commodity is able to take up so much notice? VA: I think it’s a combination of two factors. The first is a team that really understands how to speak about perfume, how to think creatively and how to perform in today’s environment.  The second factor is Commodity’s approach as a brand. The elemental, atypical and inclusive nature of the brand is really resonating with consumers. They see that we don’t try to sell to them. We simply do our thing and they’re either attracted to it or not. IR: What were the initial steps taken to help revive the brand and set it on a new path? VA: It’s important to note that Covid hit four months after we bought Commodity.   We were in an odd survival mode while also trying to revive a brand. I had noticed that the Instagram community for Commodity was always so positive and encouraging, much more than other brands I had seen and I wanted to make sure I didn’t let them down.  I decided to film our journey and take our audience along for the ride. Our docuseries was born with an episode called ‘London Calling’. What started as a way to connect to our existing community ended up having much larger top-of-funnel ramifications from a brand awareness point of view. IR: What were the biggest challenges along the way? What have been the highlights? VA: The biggest challenge in reviving any brand is making sure to not alienate previous customers by changing the product too much while breathing new life and new DNA into the brand. We created something new called Scent Space which for the first time allows customers to choose the projection [strength] of their fragrances.  We expanded each fragrance into the different Scent Spaces, and coined them “Personal”, “Expressive” and “Bold”.  It was a real gamble and a delight to relaunch in 2021 and see our customers adopting our new language. IR: Commodity just opened its first brick-and-mortar space in New York City. Are there any plans in the works to open another store soon? If so, what locations are in mind? VA: If I could, I would open a store in every major city in the world. I love the direct-to-consumer interaction coupled with expressing our design DNA in real life.   Realistically, we’re looking at London as our next stop. IR: What can consumers expect to see from the brand finishing out Q4 and heading into 2025? VA: The relaunch of the brand’s original archive fragrances in a new collection and presentation called Editions has been an exciting development.  I’m really surprised at the interest in these old favorites. They’re a year-round exclusive for the store, but the new packaging is amazing so we’re bringing these Editions to more people with limited online drops.  We’re also making it a point to always come back to our hero product, Milk, and customers can expect us to double down on it with new formats!