arpa
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About arpa
The history of Arpa Studios begins with a desire to explore fragrance beyond its traditional boundaries, treating perfume as a medium for artistic expression, memory, and sensory discovery. Founded by French perfumer Barnabé Fillion, the Paris-based project brings together perfumery, art, botany, music, and design to investigate how scent shapes human perception and emotional experience. Fillion’s multidisciplinary background informs the brand’s approach, combining an interest in natural materials and botanical compositions with an experimental vision of contemporary perfumery.
At the heart of Arpa is the concept of synesthesia, the phenomenon in which one sense evokes the experience of another. Through this perspective, fragrances become more than compositions of aromatic ingredients: they are conceived as sensory experiences capable of evoking colours, textures, sounds, places, and memories. The brand’s philosophy is expressed through The Institute, an evolving creative framework dedicated to investigating the connections between scent and other forms of perception. Rather than following conventional fragrance categories or trends, Arpa approaches each creation as an exploration of the relationship between the natural world and the human imagination.
Arpa’s first fragrance collection, Sequence 1, was developed around seven interconnected fragrances, with the seventh, Matter, conceived as a unifying element that intensifies the others. The initial scents draw inspiration from Fillion’s travels and encounters with distinctive landscapes, including Ethiopia’s volcanic terrain, the forests of Belgium, and the hot springs and fireworks of Japan. Each fragrance translates these places into an olfactory composition, capturing not only their aromas but also their atmosphere, colours, sounds, and emotional associations.
Collaboration is central to Arpa’s identity, extending the experience of perfume into visual art, music, and object design. The brand’s sculptural, hand-blown glass bottles, created with London-based glass artist Jochen Holz, reflect the landscapes and sensory ideas behind the fragrances. Musical compositions and distinctive glycerin soap casings further transform each perfume into a multi-layered object, connecting fragrance with everyday rituals and artistic expression.
In 2025, Arpa continued this exploration with Sequence 2, introduced in Paris as a new chapter in Fillion’s investigation of scent, memory, nature, and evolving forms. The collection explores iris through fragrances such as Kōsai, Piel, and Kapsel, while collaborations with musicians and fashion designers reinforce the project’s interdisciplinary character. Today, Arpa Studios stands apart from conventional perfume houses by treating fragrance as an ongoing research practice—one that brings together science, art, and nature to create deeply personal sensory experiences.