Elle Korea interviews Rami Mekdachi
1 . It's interesting to note that the brand name Lola James Harper is not the name of the CEO, but the name of the project/the persona from your imagination. Exactly what does Lola James Harper mean and how did it come to this world?
It’s been 30 years that I travel the world with my wife Celine and our 2 children Lili & Noé. 10 years ago I realized that I could share all our scents, songs, photography, movies and philosophy we gathered through that family journey… When I had to decide what name our poetic project should have I realized that I should not find one myself but ask the 3 people that share the journey with me to chose one name they like… it was a bit like finding together a name for our newborn… :-)
2 . You chose the first pop-up store in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. Have you ever visited Korea? What do you think about the image and scent of Seoul?
I am coming to Seoul in few months and then I will share with you all I feel walking in your great city…
3 . When I experienced the brand at the pop-up store, I felt like I was wearing Lola James Harper all over my body. Not only perfume, but also music, fashion, and photos. I think you showcase the scents visually. Could you recommend the specific item that represents the ‘Lola James Harper’ for those who are new to the brand?
Thank you so much for your statement and for sharing with me the feeling you had in our space… what you felt is exactly what we want to share… We want to encourage everyone to keep some room for dreams… we want to invite everyone in a place where they imagine there own stories and trigger there own souvenirs through scents, songs, photography, movies and mantras… every element is linked to the other since we visited every places, we composed and recorded every song, we edited every movie and wrote every word … « We » as me and my family with amazing people we met along the way… Nevertheless nobody apart from our family of 4 knows where and when we took those pictures or encapsulated those scents … I love poetry, and there is only poetry with a good deal of mystery…
4 . Like your brand mission ‘Do what makes you happy’, what makes you the happiest person now?
As always: being with my family, road-tripping and catching scents, songs and photography…
5. Lola James Harper's products have a story that delicately captures everyday moment that can be overlooked in our daily life, but the scent is very intuitive and visualized. The scent is not heavy and complicated which I personally believe is the attractive points of the products. What is the most important thing when you make the scent?
We have 2 families of scents, the home scents and the body scents…
The home scents are pure, figurative, direct and they express clearly one place and one moment : a vintage vinyl store with a scent of wood shelves and old paper, the surf shop in San Diego with a scent of monoi and tuberose, the red garden with a scent of wet earth… when you light one of our candles you change the atmosphere of your home and bring in your living room scents of inspiring places around the world… bringing to you the rarest essential oils, raw materials and the purest waxes…
The body scents are so different, they are about mindsets and way of being… Our 6 Eaux de toilette are classical scents built around one luxurious raw material, but with so much complexity and layers… when you spray an eau de toilette you are in fact spraying a potion that changes your mindset… that is why each of our eau have a mantra as a name…
« Everything will come together » is a scents composed around the Vétiver…
The name « Everything will come together » talks about trust… about the fact that we draw all our life puzzle pieces one next to each other and one day some of them get together and create a bigger picture…
“Play again now” is about joy and surprises, about letting go and enjoying the moment …
A beautiful vanilla amber dark wood…
“Little by little with joy” is about humility and patience… about being in the present and embracing all that is with joy… a rare and classic orange blossom…
6. I'm sure Lola James Harper is a brand that makes you want to travel right away. You must have traveled to many places around the world, would you mind sharing where is your next destination with the reason?
Since travel was much harder the last few years, I decided to start from scratch and visiting all my original places in the coming weeks : Beirut were I was born, Seattle and Los Angeles where I opened my wings as an artist, London where I learned music, and Seoul that welcomed us so well and so generously…
7. The most impressive thing about Lola James Harper is the name of the products. It feels like you are sending a strong positive and supportive message to people who have suffered, and are still suffering from the Pandemic era. To wrap up, would you give ELLE audience a supportive message with the name of the perfume?
Thank you so much for that… yes Lola James Harper is all about dreaming again, living again, enjoying again simple beautiful moments… coming back to our 5 senses and embracing what is… opening our eyes, our ears, our imagination, our hands, our dreams, our nose, our heart and enjoying our wonderful world …
So many places to see, so many lives to live, so many roads to ride with the same wonderful sun everywhere shining to let us enjoy the view… don’t you think? :-)
