Female Disruptors: Kalliope Amorphous of Black Baccara On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Trust your inner voice and the lessons that your life has given you. Trust your own power. If you are still young and you are having a hard time doing that, it does get better. As we get older, we learn to trust our inner voices and our own power more and more. I have never felt more comfortable in my own wisdom than I have since I hit my mid-forties.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kalliope Amorphous.
Kalliope is a multidisciplinary artist whose primary focus is visual and olfactory art. She is the founder of Black Baccara, an indie perfume house specializing in creative handmade fragrances. Her artisan perfumes can be found on her website at http://www.blackbaccaraoils.com
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have worked in visual art for the past decade while also running all aspects of my perfume house, Black Baccara. The themes in my visual art mirror those in my olfactory art and vice versa.I began working in olfactory art around 2007 because I’m fascinated by anything that can capture memories and evoke nostalgia.
here isn’t a medium that can do that better than scent, so I dove into learning anything and everything I could about the art of perfumery. It’s a complicated art form that requires a lot of education, expense, and experimentation, and I studied for years before I brought my first fragrance public. When I felt confident in my skills in perfumery, I began thinking about forming my own perfume house, and Black Baccara was born.
At first, it was difficult for me to balance my career in visual art with founding a perfume house. Still, I have managed to find a good balance over the years, though Black Baccara takes up the bulk of my time since it’s grown beyond my wildest dreams, particularly in the past few years.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The work that I do in perfumery might be considered the antithesis of mainstream perfume, and I fully embrace the role of a perfumer who is trying to create new work that defies the monotony of department store perfumes. Rather than being status symbols or comfortable scents for everyone can lean into, my fragrances are harbingers of individuality and a unique sense of self-expression for people who have had a hard time finding fragrances that fit that bill for them within mainstream perfumery. I have fifteen years of experience studying perfumery and crafting fragrances, but I’m also not afraid to break the rules when it comes to formulating. Perfume and music have always gone hand in hand for me. When I’m formulating, I almost always see an olfactory composition musically. Using the music metaphor, my fragrances walk in the avant-garde and experimental realm rather than the top 40. My fragrances are for people who don’t want to wear what everyone else is wearing.
The fragrance industry has long been dominated by primarily white male perfumers. As a multiracial, female owned, LGBTQ owned perfume house, my work is naturally coming from a different place. I think when my demographic holds space in an industry that historically has not been comprised of people like us, that in itself is a disruptive act.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In perfumery, there are so many mistakes you can make when you are first starting out. Even if you are a skilled perfumer, you’ll still encounter interesting things in your day to day experiments. Many of them might end up as happy accidents, but many can also end in disaster. There were many humorous results when I first began working with aroma chemicals and trying to craft unique or specific accords. I remember once spending an entire month trying to perfect an accord that was supposed to smell like vinyl. It didn’t smell quite right, but I felt like maybe after maceration and a few additions, I could get it where it needed to be.
Two months later, after adding several more components, I got carried away with adjustments, and it ended up smelling precisely like new tires. It was such a dead ringer it was hilarious. But, unfortunately, there isn’t a market for a new tires perfume. The lesson I learned is to always expect the unexpected.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
There isn’t a person because I did not have any help or support to get where I am. Art has always sustained me and kept me going in the face of a lot of trauma and adversity, and I recognize that I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to turn it into two successful career paths. I haven’t had any support from family, I don’t have parents, and I don’t have a big social circle like I did when I was younger. Any success I have has been through my own determination to overcome and heal myself through art. It has not been easy by any means, and rarely a day goes by that I am not amazed and grateful that I am safe and thriving.
Some people come from nothing and pull themselves up on their own without any support. I wasn’t sure how to answer this question, but I am answering honestly, and I think people should know that there’s no shame in admitting you haven’t had a support system.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think it’s always positive to disrupt an industry that might be clinging to antiquated values or ways of operating. The old ways are dying for so many industries, and it’s time to either move into a more inclusive space or be left behind. For example, I am one of many who believe that fragrance descriptors and names like “oriental” and “gypsy” need to end. The beauty industry, in particular the fragrance industry, should be evolving in its approach to language and culture. Disrupting any industry that is antiquated in either in its lack of diversity and inclusion, or via its marketing language, is always a positive in my opinion.
As for “not so positive” disruption, the first thing that comes to mind is giant corporations harming small businesses and artists. Big box stores and technology have combined to disrupt retail and how we think of shopping and many consumers are growing to expect fast, throwaway items. Instant gratification and 48-hour shipping times are convenient, but at what cost? It’s not only harmful to the environment; it’s ultimately harmful to artists and anyone who makes handmade items.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
I don’t have any examples of this, because going back to the earlier question of support and mentorship, I haven’t had any. So, when I get asked questions like this, I always come up empty even though I would very much like to find some words of wisdom to share.
I can’t be the only one who struggles with questions like this, so I will use this as an opportunity to tell those who are on a journey and don’t have support that it’s perfectly okay to travel that road on your own. When it comes to entrepreneurship and small business, it has become sort of a myth that everyone has a bunch of hands (or at least some hands) propping them up and offering advice and guidance. Not everyone has support, family, or even a large social circle to draw from.
It’s okay to not have a mentor or people to turn to for advice. Not all of us are fortunate enough to have that, but it’s not a flaw and it’s not something that should hold you back.
Trust your inner voice and the lessons that your life has given you. Trust your own power. If you are still young and you are having a hard time doing that, it does get better. As we get older, we learn to trust our inner voices and our own power more and more. I have never felt more comfortable in my own wisdom than I have since I hit my mid-forties.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Right now I am working on exposing the insidiousness of corporations that try to harm small business and artists through overreaching intellectual property law, in particular through what is known as “trademark bullying.” Trademark bullying is when a trademark owner uses overly aggressive tactics to harass or intimidate someone beyond what the scope of IP law allows. It’s usually a David vs. Goliath situation, wherein a large corporate entity with unlimited financial and legal resources tries to bully a smaller entity that doesn’t have the same resources.
I was recently targeted by the luxury crystal brand Baccarat who owns the trademark for Baccarat Rouge 540. They have argued that there could be customer confusion between them and myself based on our names and the things we sell. Of course, this is all ridiculous, because we couldn’t be any more dissimilar in both name, customer base, and the types of things we sell. So, I am fighting them, and in the process of fighting them I am trying to bring awareness to this issue.
Large corporations stealing from artists and trying to bully artists out of business isn’t anything new, but I would like for more artists to understand the power play, stand up to them, and not fear them. If we don’t stand up to them, or at the very least expose them, they will continue to try to destroy the art world and the world of handmade with impunity.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I think it’s the same in every industry. We aren’t always taken as seriously, even when we might be making similar innovations or sending the same message as our male counterparts. We definitely don’t get the media coverage that men do, and so we don’t have the same visibility, or worse, we are rendered invisible within certain industries. As someone who has been very vocal in speaking out against injustice, I have also learned that nothing will ensure that someone tries to shut you up faster than to be a woman speaking the truth loudly. So, if you are a woman and you are doing something disruptive and you are doing it loudly, you have to anticipate that there will be something or someone that tries to stop it.
One of the things I have also noticed is that a woman who projects confidence in her work might often be deemed aggressive or too much whereas a man projecting the same confidence isn’t questioned at all. I see this a lot in almost every arts-related industry. Male confidence and ego and female confidence and ego are perceived and accepted differently. It’s two different worlds.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
There is a podcast that has literally had a deep impact on my thinking, because it has allowed me to fall asleep when I can’t. I am an insomniac and I also have a circadian rhythm disorder that is constantly trying to reverse my sleep schedule. I joke that I have the sleep schedule of a vampire, but it really is a difficult disorder to live with, because sometimes I will wake up for the day at midnight and go to bed for the night at 11 in the morning.
The podcast is called Sleep With Me by Drew Ackerman. He creates these surreal, stream of consciousness stories based on things like nostalgia, childhood memories, and his own fictional stories, which he reads in a very monotone yet soothing voice. It’s the one podcast I turn to when I can’t sleep, and it always helps relax my mind, even if I don’t ultimately end up falling asleep. One of my favorite episodes he did was where he got ahold of an HBO TV Guide from the 1980s and read it for over an hour. He also has a series where he just reads the Trader Joe’s catalog. It’s all perfect for a mind that is constantly contemplating very intense things and really needs to unwind into something surreal yet simple.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
There are so many crucial movements right now, so I’m not sure I can choose between all of the issues that are important to me. Black Lives Matter, LGBT+ rights, indigenous rights, climate awareness; these are all issues that center very strongly in my life. I suppose all of these issues connect in a way. In my dream world, maybe I would start a movement of accountability where humans face up to the damage they have done and begin to heal from there.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There is one line that I think of almost all of the time: “Whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice.” It’s not your typical life lesson sort of quote, but it is for me. It’s from a poem by Louise Gluck called The Wild Iris. The poem itself is about rebirth, but it has layers upon layers of meaning and metaphor.
For me, it is a reminder of having survived physical death as well as the deaths of loved ones. It is also a reminder of ego death, which I experienced many years ago, and the way that sense of oblivion influences the way I perceive things to this day. In so many ways, I feel like I have returned from oblivion to find a voice, and it is important for me to remember this in order to stay centered in a state of gratitude.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/blackbaccaraperfume/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Kalliope Amorphous of Black Baccara On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.