Fragrance, through memory. A one-man house, built release by release.
BeginHoM Haute, short for Harum Oleh Memori, “fragrance through memory”, was founded on a simple belief.
A scent can recall a forgotten conversation, a distant place, a season of life, or a person no longer present, with a clarity that words often cannot.
Fragrance is one of the few things capable of preserving memory long after the moment itself has passed. Inspired by the spontaneity of jazz, the discipline of haute craftsmanship, and the beauty of imperfection, each creation is composed in small batches as a living expression rather than a fixed formula.
From everyday signatures to more adventurous explorations, HoM Haute exists at the intersection of artisan perfumery, refined elegance, and creative freedom, crafting scents that are meant not only to be worn, but remembered.
Every fragrance is built to hold a moment, a place, a person, a season, and return it years later.
The spontaneity of improvisation: compositions that feel alive, instinctive, and never quite repeatable.
The discipline of fine perfumery: precise materials, considered structure, made in small batches by hand.
Beauty in the unpolished and the unexpected. A living expression rather than a fixed formula.
“The result of a lifelong curiosity rather than formal training.”
From the archiveHoM Haute is the result of a lifelong curiosity rather than formal training. Coming from an economics background and having worked across many industries, Reza approaches perfumery through continuous exploration, self-education and experimentation. Entirely self-taught, he views fragrance as a medium where craftsmanship, storytelling, culture and personal expression meet, and continues to build HoM Haute as an independent house driven by curiosity, authenticity, and an uncompromising creative vision.
No perfume family, no lineage, no laboratory waiting. It began as a side-hustle idea during the corporate years, and grew one underdog year at a time.
“I never claim I’m a perfumer. I just love perfume, and I like to learn and create. That’s why my brand never mentions me as a perfumer. All of those labels come from other people, from the outside. The same applies to the design, the photography, even the web. I’m not a designer or a programmer, even though I created them all. I call myself creative director and brand owner.”
“I graduated with a major in economics and finance, but I’m not an economist or a financier, and I learned more about those two outside the university. To the point: a major or a study doesn’t make you know better than people who gain from a wider spectrum of knowledge outside the institution. Experience and ideas, taste and exploration, give you more knowledge, beyond what’s already written.”
Reza, in his own wordsIt began with curiosity, as a wearer chasing samples and decants, in a local scene with no information and no education. No chemistry degree, no perfumery school, no mentor. Essential oils mixed with no idea, chocolate crushed into a bottle, books passed around because there was no other way to read them, YouTube lessons on aromachemicals, then the forums and GC-MS. The internet was my school. Letter II
My first perfume house, experimental to its core, built on a single dare: experience the impossible. Where it all began. @medicihouseof
As the world locked down, House of Medici helped pioneer Indonesia’s modern perfume scene, one of the early independent houses to give a still-forming market its shape.
Excitement grows fast. The romance of Indonesia’s young fragrance scene feels like butterflies in the stomach: a community falling for scent, discovering itself release by release.
The work leaves the lab: first pop-ups and offline presence at Templ Store and Semasa, fragrance meeting people in person for the first time.
“Scent of Indonesia” is a bazaar of mass-market fragrance, and House of Medici is already loved by the crowd. Yet to the fragheads it stays underestimated. That stung, and the sting became fuel. I found HoM Haute, a one-man house, still solo today, built to be taken seriously on its own terms. Early focus: Memento, fragrance as memory.
HoM Haute pushes into true artisan perfumery: ultra-limited runs, real materials, slower hands. It earns the attention of the artisan-fragrance heads, yet as an underdog it is still underestimated by many. The answer is the same as always: keep improving. The same year I co-found Hutan Aromantika, fully natural and Indonesia-centric, another way to learn the craft from a different direction.
I stop composing in isolation. Honest input, blind feedback and sharp critique from the Jakarta Fragrance Club lift the work exponentially. An outsider with no support system suddenly has one. The house settles into its name and philosophy, Harum Oleh Memori, fragrance through memory, and earns real trust. A small cult of open-minded supporters forms around it, growing local and international. The house’s gratitude toward them runs deep. Letter III
Focus turns to modern classics, every release reaching for haute quality, alongside the Fragrance Matrix and this website. The honest challenge remains: as a local brand, some collectors still rank it below established international luxury, even where the quality is, I believe, already on par, and still improving. That gap does not discourage me. It is just the next thing to close.
The hope: to establish the house’s reputation in full, respected at home in Indonesia, and recognised internationally. The underdog keeps climbing. The work continues.
Throughout, the spirit holds: an underdog’s appetite for getting better, and a deep gratitude to the supporters who believed early.
Five plain reasons that happened to meet in one craft.
The self-taught road, and the one thing I never had to learn.
An outsider’s climb, and the Jakarta Fragrance Club year.
One person, a set of systems, and a real life too.
Why the house moves the way it does.