Byredo Shops: From Stockholm’s Jewel Box to Dubai’s Flagship

Now I have a suitable home for the fragrances.
Ben Gorham

The world of BYREDO began with scent and has expanded into leather goods, makeup and objects for the home. Its stores express that thinking by bringing these different things together. The starting point was a small shop in Stockholm. At the Dubai flagship, wooden grids and a hand-painted ceiling give a new character to the space in which visitors choose a fragrance.

Contents

The First Stores
1. The First Shop in Stockholm
The Thinking Behind the Stores
1. Bringing Different Objects Together
Stores to Visit
1. The Current Stockholm Store
2. The Dubai Mall Flagship
References

The First Stores

The First Shop in Stockholm

Ben Gorham founded Byredo in Stockholm in 2006. Translating memories and emotions into objects and experiences lies at the heart of his creative approach. Gorham had imagined a shop of their own from the brand’s earliest days, but its first retail spaces were temporary ones, including pop-ups.

As relationships with customers grew, the next step came in 2009: the first standalone store, in the city where the brand began. It was not a large space. Gorham later described its scale this way:

The Stockholm store was kind of a jewel box format
Ben Gorham

The first store was designed by Gorham in collaboration with Christian Hallerød and Johannes Svartholm. It brought together traditional Swedish blown glass and inspiration from India’s luxury trains. This combination, reaching beyond Scandinavia, also reflected Gorham’s Indian roots. The space around the perfume bottles gave visitors a sense of the brand’s origins.

The Thinking Behind the Stores

Bringing Different Objects Together

In 2015, a second store opened in New York’s SoHo. The larger space allowed more scope for furniture design and the choice of materials. At the same time, Gorham was reconsidering the relationship between perfume and the leather goods and accessories newly joining the collection. As the range grew, presenting these different categories together became a central question in designing the stores.

That thinking was particularly clear in the pop-up at Dubai Mall in 2018. In a department store, perfume, bags and eyewear are separated into different departments. A standalone space could bring them together and reveal the connections between objects from the same brand. Dubai was central to the house’s relationships with customers in the Middle East, and a city Gorham himself had visited since childhood.

My idea for the backdrop in a retail environment is to bring the product into the forefront.
Ben Gorham

Stores to Visit

The Current Stockholm Store

In 2024, the Stockholm store moved to larger premises in Bibliotekstan. Alongside perfume, it carries makeup, objects for the home and small leather goods, offering a sense of the brand’s expanding world.

The Dubai Mall Flagship

The store in Dubai Mall’s Fashion Avenue is now a Byredo flagship. It brings together perfume, makeup, hand and body care, objects for the home, sunglasses and small leather goods under one roof.

A walnut grid wraps around the interior, with glass cloches set into its individual compartments. The repeated domes and rows of shelving establish a rhythm across the walls, recalling the mashrabiya, the traditional lattice window of the Middle East.

Beyond a timber-framed opening lies another room. Overhead is a hand-painted ceiling by Swedish artist Miriam Eklöf. Kurbits, a traditional style of painting known for its flowing ornament, is reworked into a flat, repeating pattern. Against the straight lines of the grid, the brushwork adds another presence.

Pale, stone-like plinths, muted gold-toned metal surfaces and woven carpets complete the combination. Looking from the wooden structure to the ceiling and down to the floor reveals the different materials and patterns layered within the same store.

Illustration of the BYREDO Dubai flagship interior, with wooden grids and glass cloches — The BYREDO flagship at Dubai Mall (illustration)

Visitors can try perfumes while discussing their preferences with the staff. Between scents, it is worth comparing the forms of the leather goods and the objects for the home. How has Byredo’s creativity, which began with perfume, expanded into things that can be seen and held? The store makes those connections tangible within a single space.