Discotheque scents are reminiscent of the smell of Tokyo in the year 2000

The founders of the discotheque Jessie Willner and Hanover Booth have made it their mission to translate the hedonism and euphoria of a big party into scents.

The brand’s first line of candles, launched in early 2023, evokes the feeling of eating yuzu cake on a dance floor in Tokyo at the beginning of the millennium, partying with poets in an abandoned Parisian bathhouse in 1979, or spending exclusive evenings in mythical clubs like z the Mudd Club or Chez Castel. The former, a meeting point for the 1980s New York art scene, was imagined as a whiskey and vanilla scent, with hints of a peach-flavored cocktail and a portrait of a flower by Robert Mapplethorpe; The decadence of Paris’s Chez Castel smells of “velvet, incense and a lemon drop cocktail.”

The Discotheque’s first perfume collection

(Image credit: Courtesy of Discothèque)

“We decided to name the candles after legendary nightclubs because everyone was either a part of them or wished they were,” says Willner. But for the brand’s latest project, a wearable perfume collection, the pair felt it was time to move beyond the confines of specific clubs and embrace a broader context.

Then, each of the new scents references a specific city at a specific time, from LA in 1986 to Marrakesh in 2003. Willner’s favorite from the collection is “Lola at Coat Check (New York, 1992),” a blend of musky notes with a touch of white chocolate. For Booth, however, it is “Call for a Good Time (Tokyo, 2000)”. “It’s a floral scent but has this strange, abstract feel to it because it’s inspired by the look of lasers on the dance floor,” she explains. And it actually smells as interesting as this description suggests, like ylang-ylang, jasmine and musk. “Every time I wear it, people stop me and ask me what it is,” Hanover adds.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Discothèque)

Discotheque is a “passion project that has gone too far,” Hanover jokes. But that’s exactly what makes the brand so convincing. “Everything you see has been touched by us,” she continues.

This extends from the packaging to the brand’s visual identity to the new perfume bottles: thick cubes of colored glass with a chrome shield on the front and a square cap decorated like a disco ball.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Discothèque)

Even though the scents of the Discotheque are inspired by the night, they are surprisingly adaptable to the hours of the day. According to Booth, they might even add some energy to your everyday activities. “When I apply these scents, I feel the tension of the stories we have created,” she says.