THE HOUSE OF MATRIARCH STORY

WE BELIEVE IN MAGIC

We believe in the transcendent power of fragrance to connect us to the past, captivate our being to excite the present moment and help us to write the future. Our Founder, Scent Strategist and Perfume Mage, Christi Meshell, is the preeminent “Creative Nose” of the American niche fragrance scene. Her versatility as both Creative Director and Fragrance Composer allow her to single-handedly develop a concept from initial inspiration, to rare ingredient gathering and onwards to final display, cellaring and legacy cataloging.

COME THROUGH THE SMOKE

"Perfume" literally means "to thoroughly smoke" or "through smoke". Smoke informs the language of House of Matriarch in terms of the voice, design, and philosophy of our house. Smoke is elegant, it dances, like fragrances on the palette, it is ephemeral, beauteous in its fleeting form and we are captivated by it. Similarly, fragrance is a passing experience, drawing you into a world of memory and emotion only briefly. It is layered in its nature, folding on itself and changing with time.

In ancient times, perfuming would come as a result of sitting close to the fire, the smoke bestowing its fragrance to those standing in close proximity. During ceremonies of high importance, precious materials were offered for burning. Today, we adorn ourselves with perfumes for such events, yet sadly most modern perfumery has been reduced to an attempt at replicating Nature. In creating High Perfumery one must go to the source - no substitution can be accepted.

BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD

Is a Native American philosophy of how walking the beauty path—the Hozro, the Beauty Way, a Navajo word for a harmonious world. This philosophy and lifestyle drives our creations and each decision we face in the operation of an indie fragrance house and brand.

M ICONOGRAPHY

The alphabetic vessel that symbolizes 13, ( 1+3 = 4 ) the four points of balance and holism, the halfway balance point of the 26 letters of the alphabet, the Matriarch, Making, Mater and Matter. The M is a mystical letter, it is the 13 — which is a number of power unto itself; and in its drawing, there is a character of flow, of fountains, of outreach and embracement. To layering and energy, we’ve dug deep into our rare archives and pulled, built and redrawn flourishes and embellishment.

FLOWER OF LIFE

METATRON

Our design system utilizes a mystical, elemental interpretation of cosmical meditation and geometry - METATRON - the reality- translational geometry of Platonically described theories of form and space. As noted: “the tetrahedron — found twice in the cube of Metatron, secondly in the star tetrahedron — the fire element; the cube, also twice expressed — the earth element; the eight sided octohedron — the 8 strokes of air; the icosahedron, of twenty sides — water element, and finally, the dodecahedron of twelve sides — the cosmos. This Timean cosmography — founded on his dialogues, an actual monologue, documented by Plato in roughly 360BC, describing the principles of Timaios in his storytelling of a perfected “state,” founded by the manufacture of the universe by a divine craftsman.

VENUS ORBITAL PATTERN

Venus is the Goddess of Love and is associated with the principles of harmony, beauty, balance, feelings and affections and the urge to sympathize and unite with others. She shares "planetary rulership" over the realm of beauty (including perfume) along with her higher octave: Neptune.

TEXTURE AND FEEL

We sense texture as touch — but for our thinking, it is holistic: for the eyes the glinting of modeled light on a surface, hearing the rasp of a fingered glance, the taste of a tongue on texture and the scent — as it unfurls from a modeled plane. It is what shall be found in the surface patterning of a bottle, box, scarf, merchandising stand, a business card and an embossed seal. When we think of brand holism, and House of Matriarch, we envision a layering of touches and visualized patterning treatments that have symbolic alignment with the spirit of the brand, and reflect the densely rich layering of Matriarch High Perfumes.

BOTTLE INSPIRATION

A tear catcher, also called a Tear Bottle or Lacrimosa, is typically an ornamental vase piece, made from blown glass and dyed appropriately to the creator’s taste. Tear Catchers were commonly used during Ancient Roman times, with mourners filling glass bottles with their tears, often placing them in tombs as a symbol of their respect for the deceased. It was also used to show remorse, guilt, love and grief. The women cried during the procession, and the more tears collected in tear bottles meant the deceased was more important. Tear bottles were designed with special seals, which allowed the tears to evaporate. By the time that the tears were reduced to "salt", the mourning period was considered over.

COPPER

The creation of HIGH PERFUMERY is not achievable without copper. There is a good reason to use copper for distilling: copper catalyzes certain reactions that remove undesirable notes/flavors in the distillate and make it 'smoother'. Without copper, the distillate will smell sharp and unpleasant. Copper beautifies it - remember perfumery has associations with Venus as the goddess of love and beauty. How interesting that copper is essential to perfume making.

THE BEAUTY MARK

We believe in magic. That magic is real, transformational and transportive. Like perfume, another alchemical journey, magic takes a person from one plane to another, from one portal to a new, and perhaps undiscovered realm. Matriarch is part of that magic, a portal, so in our layering, we’re building in magical code. We’re not pushing it, but we’re walking it, as a story behind the story. We believe that everyone is looking for more magic in their lives. One such code, the "BEAUTY MARK" takes its architecture from the astrological charting of a particular date and time. We see this implemented in the design as a unique symbol for each fragrance that if understood by the user can inform them of the astral alignments on the day each fragrance was conceived.

CHARIKLO

Chariklo is our perfumer Christi's dove. More than a pet - Chariklo flies free in the atelier and inspires Christi by leaving dropped feathers in auspicious places - our fan blotter strips were traced from one of her wing feathers.

Through astrology, we know that Chariklo was a favorite companion to Athena, a healing assistant to Vesta, the daughter of Apollo, the consort of Chiron and mother to Okyrhoe who spoke the "Healer of all the world" prophecy over Asclepius (father of medicine). These associations were not known to Christi when Chariklo's name was selected - she simply loved the sound of the name. It took some time for the deep symbolic meaning behind Chariklo's name to be revealed.