Fort & Manle

The brand that has generated a great deal of buzz in the fragrance world over the past two years is  Fort & Manle. The fragrances are excellent, and it becomes immediately clear that this is not stereotypical niche perfumery. Indeed, when you hold one of this brand's bottles in your hand, you can feel the heart and love that went into creating something so beautiful. Then, of course, comes the moment when you apply the fragrance to your skin and are completely captivated by its charm. So who is behind this successful brand? Where does he draw his inspiration from? Here are all the answers. The man behind the brand, Razi Fort, is a name that constantly surprises with his beautiful, original fragrances. He discovered his passion for fragrances in 2005 during a visit to Saudi Arabia. While there, he explored many perfumeries specializing in attars (fragrance oils) and Agarwood (Ood), and so his passionate love of fragrances was born. When he returned to Melbourne, he decided to sell attars imported from Saudi Arabia and founded his own business, called "Rose of the Desert." The business was not especially successful, so after selling his stock, he began delving into the world of niche fragrances and collecting perfumes from many niche houses. He says that before creating perfumes, he was an enthusiastic collector, and therefore made sure to smell a great many fragrances. Over the years, however, he developed a strong desire to experiment with his own creations. Thus, what began as a hobby quickly became a form of sensory art. Family and friends frequently complimented his work and would even request custom fragrances, but in his mind, he never felt that his creations matched the luxury brands in his collection. Because of the abundance of fragrances on the market, he understood that to create a product that was truly exceptional, he would have to find only the finest raw materials available. His goal was to achieve the smoothness and transparency he had encountered in most contemporary compositions. As a self-taught perfumer, this was not easy, but six years later, and after many experiments, he finally felt confident enough to launch his brand Fort & Manle. Probably precisely because he is not classically trained and does not really know the rules of perfume-making, he creates something different, new, and bold. The philosophy behind Fort & Manle : fragrancesfragrances allowed Razi to express his inspirations, impressions, and personal experiences and explore his creativity. It is clear what the philosophy of his brand is. For him, this is a luxurious perfume house whose philosophy is to continually create handcrafted luxury perfumes that are individualistic, eclectic, and often eccentric. It is an independent, artistic perfume house, founded and fully owned by him. The house is a fusion of minds, ideas, ideals, and spirit. It constantly nurtures pop culture, history, and diverse cultures, including a rich Turkish heritage, by searching the world for the finest raw materials and combining them with his inspirations. Since it was an unknown brand, he needed to create an aesthetic that would distinguish it from all the others. At some point, therefore, he decided to emboss the name of the perfume on metal plates. How does he come up with an idea for a perfume? According to him, the idea for a Fort & Manle fragrance begins with a concept: he envisions how the final product will smell and starts by creating the base that embodies that concept. He then carefully combines the heart and top notes accordingly. This often requires many variations of the fragrance, adding different notes as the fragrance develops. He finds inspiration in many different ways: personal journeys, experiences, places, and cultures, or he simply falls in love with a raw material and wants to build a fragrance around it. In other cases, he simply turns to history and creates a fragrance suited to a particular period.