The Beauty of Time Travel

How does one reinvent an old brand, and revive it in the 21st century? For Ramdane Touhami It all started with a Balzac novel, a flea market find, and a jolt of creative inspiration. Rebuilding one of Paris' long-forgotten apothecaries, Officine Universelle Buly was reestablished in 2014. Polymath creative director and entrepreneur Touhami infused an appreciation for all things vintage with a spirit of conquest and innovation to offer a coveted-catalogue of premium products--often slightly quirky, but always elegant, refined, and delightful. A veritable handbook for creating a desirable, unique, and authentic brand, this book describes French savoir faire at its best, and recounts Buly's unusual adventures from 1803 to the present, conveying the best of traditional retail, such as personalization and craftsmanship, with the indispensable values of today, like sustainability and digitalization. Extensively illustrated with prints and photographs, The Beauty of Time Travel takes readers on a journey across the centuries to discover the history of the perfumery, as well as of its design, typography, and advertising. This comprehensive work explores the themes of flamboyance and French-style service, Buly's management philosophy, designing and producing the perfect product, fighting for a plastic-free range, the need to ground the local within a globalized system, and what our obsession with beauty means. Presented by its protagonists, The Beauty of Time Travel dissects the Buly universe from A to Z, looking at it's appetite for reinventing traditions whilst revealing the stories, tricks, and (almost) all its secrets.