Jelang
Protect your peace.
A denim enthusiast and a fragrance enthusiast, in that order when he says it, who works with brands and people for a living. Ask him where a scent takes him and he will tell you it is not a place at all. It is a second, and then it lets you go.
Jelang Fajar Ramadhan calls himself a denim and fragrance enthusiast, and puts the cloth first. He spends his working life around partnerships, talent and brands, which is to say around people and their stories, but the two things he names before any of that are a cloth and a smell. Both of them are ways of keeping a record, which turns out to be the whole of this issue. Fragrance arrived as the second of the two. It began as nothing more complicated than liking the act of smelling things, and then it got specific: the ingredients, the way a composition is built, how it moves on skin, and the one that seems to have hooked him hardest, why two people can put on the same thing and not agree about what it is.
He is careful to say it is not about collecting. What he wants is the comparing, the talking, the working out of why one thing lands and another does not.
Everything he sent us is a view out of somewhere. A canal under a grey sky. A street after rain. Water seen from under a wooden roof. A counter with the bottles lined up and a blotter halfway to his face. And last, not a photograph at all, but a drawing of a room that opens onto the night. None of them is really a picture of a place. They are all the same picture of a person standing still for a second longer than he needed to.
The file
The soundtrack
We asked for a playlist that describes him. This is what came back.
I think my background is a little bit of a mix of things. Professionally, I've been working around partnerships, talent, and brands, so I'm used to working with people, understanding their stories, and thinking about how a brand can connect with the right audience.
But outside of work, fragrance slowly became a very personal interest for me. It started quite simply, I just really enjoyed smelling things and discovering what I liked. Over time, I became more curious about the details: the ingredients, the way a fragrance is composed, how it develops on skin, and why two people can smell the exact same thing and have completely different reactions to it.
I think that curiosity is what pulled me deeper into fragrance. These days, it's not just about collecting bottles for me. I really enjoy exploring, comparing, talking about fragrances, and understanding what makes a scent feel special.
And I guess that's where I am now, someone who works with brands and people professionally, but has this very personal and slightly obsessive relationship with fragrance on the side.
He puts denim before fragrance when he describes himself, and the two turn out to be the same hobby. Raw indigo only ever sits on the outside of the yarn. Every crease you put into it takes a little off and never puts it back, so the cloth ends up holding a record of how you sat, walked, knelt and what you carried. Drag the months.
The zones follow the standard vocabulary of raw denim wear: whiskers, honeycombs, stacks, train tracks, the seat and the wallet. Timings are typical for a heavy raw pair worn most days rather than a measurement, and the red line is the selvedge. The point is not really the jeans. It is that a thing you own can keep a record of your ordinary movements without ever being asked to, which is the same claim he makes about a bottle.
Fragrance is a reminder of a moment
For me, fragrance is a reminder of a moment. I feel like every step, every statement, and every little thing I do can create a moment, and fragrance somehow becomes part of that. Sometimes I don't even realize it at the time, but later, a certain scent can bring me back to how I felt in that particular moment.
Every step, every statement, and every little thing I do can create a moment.
Not a place. A second.
Fragrance rarely takes me to a specific place. It takes me to memories, and sometimes to a person. But it is not necessarily about who that person was. It is more about the beautiful memory or a certain moment connected to them.
Sometimes a familiar scent makes me stop for a second and just stay with that memory, remembering what happened and how that moment felt. I think that is what I love most about fragrance. It can quietly bring you back without asking for anything in return.
It can quietly bring you back without asking for anything in return.
I choose based on the mood I'm in
I'm quite picky when it comes to fragrance. I literally choose what to wear based on the mood I'm in that day.
I naturally gravitate towards vanilla, smoky, creamy or buttery textures, tobacco, and amber. Lately, I've been wearing My Favorite Things by HoM Haute, which is one of the best local vanilla fragrances I've come across so far. For a casual day at the office, I often reach for Layton by Parfums de Marly. And then there's my all-time favorite from Guerlain, Cuir Beluga.
For special occasions I'm using Guerlain Oud Kohl and Chanel Coromandel.
This is his method, not ours. He does not build a day around a bottle, he waits to find out what kind of day it is and then decides. Move the point. His five are already placed where they actually sit.
Positions are our reading of each fragrance, not his. The five bottles are the ones he named: My Favorite Things (HoM Haute), Layton (Parfums de Marly), Cuir Beluga and Oud Kohl (Guerlain), Coromandel (Chanel).
Before doing anything
It sounds cliché, but praying before I start my day has always been important to me. I also like to take a really deep breath before doing anything. It sounds simple, but it helps me feel calmer and more grounded.
Then there's coffee, a cigarette, and a few whiffs of whatever fragrance I'm into that day. Somehow, those little things make the beginning of my day feel complete.
He gives five things he does before anything else, and then signs off with three words. Put the two together and they stop being two answers. Turn off what he does first, then let the day in, and watch what the same morning costs.
What he does first
What the day sends
His five, in his order, unedited. The intrusions are ordinary ones. The numbers are ours and they are a model rather than a measurement. What is not a model is the order. He does all five before he lets any of it in, which is what the three words at the end of this issue actually mean.
Whether it belongs here, and now
To me, good taste is the ability to choose and appreciate things that are beautiful and well-made, while understanding whether they belong in a particular place and moment.
It's not simply about choosing something expensive or rare. It's about knowing what feels right, and appreciating the beauty and quality behind it.
You don't always have to say much
I think you don't always have to say much. Sometimes, just doing the right thing is enough to influence the people around you.
Protect your peace.
Photographs supplied by the subject
Issue 40 · Jakarta · 2026