What Bangladesh smells like

 Md Al Amin Abedin placed two small perfume bottles on the desk.

One was labelled “Ashar”. The other, “Sylhet”.

After spraying each onto separate blotter strips, he passed them across the table. The fragrances were noticeably different. Ashar opened brighter, lighter and almost mineral. Sylhet felt deeper, with a darker character.

Both, he said, were attempts to capture Bangladesh.

It is an unusual ambition. Countries are recognised by their flags, food, music or landscapes. Rarely are they distilled into perfume.

Over the past four years, Abedin, a Dhaka-based entrepreneur and perfume enthusiast, has worked with two internationally respected independent perfumers—Italian architect-turned-perfumer Antonio Gardoni and London-based perfumer Sultan Pasha—to answer a deceptively simple question: what does Bangladesh smell like?

The collaboration became Shekor, a niche perfume house whose first two fragrances draw on Bangladeshi landscapes, memory and identity rather than conventional perfume inspirations.

The idea began several years before there was a brand.

Around 2016, Abedin developed an interest in fragrance beyond the designer perfumes commonly available in Bangladesh. He found himself drawn instead to niche perfumery, where independent houses often enjoy greater creative freedom than large commercial brands. As an online community of Bangladeshi fragrance enthusiasts grew on Facebook, he found others who approached perfume less as an accessory than as an art form.

Among the first niche houses he explored was Nishane. His curiosity gradually led him towards increasingly experimental perfumers, eventually introducing him to the work of Antonio Gardoni, founder of the Italian perfume house Bogue Profumo.

The two began communicating during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their conversations initially centred on the possibility of importing Gardoni's fragrances into Bangladesh. But the discussions gradually evolved into something more ambitious.

According to Abedin, it was Gardoni who first proposed creating perfumes inspired by Bangladesh.

"He mentioned the idea to me in 2021," Abedin recalled. "I said yes, although I wasn't sure how feasible it would be."

Gardoni, he said, has always been interested in creatively unusual projects. Bangladesh offered a subject almost entirely unexplored in contemporary niche perfumery. The timing also made practical sense. The pandemic had slowed business for many independent perfume makers, making collaborations more attractive.

"It was reassuring when Antonio said it was a good idea," Abedin said.

Around the same period, Abedin became acquainted with another respected independent perfumer, Sultan Pasha, whose family traces its roots to Sylhet.

"I told Antonio that since we were working with Bangladesh, it would be great to bring Sultan Pasha on board as well because of his Bangladeshi roots," Abedin said. Gardoni agreed immediately.

The three agreed to pursue the project together.

Abedin's role was neither that of perfumer nor chemist. He translated his ideas into creative briefs, leaving the perfumers to interpret them through scent.

"For me, the monsoon best represents the beauty of Bangladesh," he said. "Winter is beautiful too. But travelling across Bangladesh during the rainy season left the strongest impression on me. Monsoon makes everything look beautiful."

The brief became the foundation for Ashar, named after the Bangla calendar month that marks the arrival of the monsoon. But Pasha didn't just interpret Abedin's vision. He tapped into his own childhood memories of Bangladeshi rain.

Speaking at Shekor's pre-launch in Dhaka, Pasha recalled:

"I have a very distinct memory of my mother...taking me on a rickshaw and it was raining very, very heavily. The rain was falling on the back of the rickshaw driver. And he was pulling very hard. We were going through a grove of kodom trees, surrounded by fields of rice and bamboo. That's the image I wanted to capture when I created Ashar."

The fragrance centres on the scent of kadam, the distinctive spherical flower closely associated with the rainy season. Citrus, rain accords and ozonic notes evoke the freshness of monsoon showers, while green tea, bamboo and rice echo the landscape Pasha described before giving way to amber and vetiver.

While Ashar drew on season, Sylhet looked to geography.

Gardoni's Sylhet is built around shatkora, the aromatic citrus fruit native to Bangladesh's north-east, alongside black tea, a crop that has shaped both the landscape and economy of the region. Lemongrass, mint and jasmine open the composition before richer notes gradually emerge.

Abedin describes the two perfumers as approaching the same challenge in very different ways.

Gardoni, trained as an architect, works methodically, constructing fragrances with almost scientific precision. Pasha, by contrast, relies more on intuition and imagination.

Neither perfume emerged quickly.

The first developmental version—known within perfumery as a "mod"—arrived in 2023.

Nearly three years later, Abedin still recalled Gardoni's first submission clearly.

"It was an excellent composition," he said. "But it didn't quite match my vision."

The fragrances continued travelling back and forth between Italy, Britain and Bangladesh through 20 mods before the team agreed they had successfully translated their vision into scent. The finished versions of Ashar and Sylhet were officially launched in 2025 at Pitti Fragranze in Florence, one of the perfume industry's leading exhibitions.

Shekor itself had been founded three years earlier, in 2022. The business is financed by Abedin together with another partner who is involved in funding the venture but not in its creative direction.

From one perfume to a wider house

Although the inspiration is Bangladeshi, the perfumes are produced and bottled entirely in Italy.

For Abedin, the decision was practical. Manufacturing there allows the company to rely on established production facilities and export infrastructure. Building the same operation in Bangladesh would have involved significantly greater bureaucratic and logistical challenges.

The project was not originally conceived as a perfume house. According to Abedin, the initial idea centred on creating a single fragrance inspired by Bangladesh. But as discussions progressed, he and Gardoni concluded that no single perfume could capture the country's landscapes, history and culture. Instead, the idea evolved into Shekor—a brand designed to explore Bangladesh through distinct olfactory lenses.

The first two fragrances are intended as the opening chapter of a much broader project.

Abedin says Shekor's creative philosophy rests on four themes: Bangladesh's beauty, culture, history and heritage.

More fragrances are already in development.

Dhaka, now approaching its final developmental stage, aims to recreate the aromas of Old Dhaka and is being composed by Spanish master perfumer Christian Carbonnel. Another fragrance explores Chittagong through its historic spice trade. Others take inspiration from the Sundarbans, Cox's Bazar, muslin and Bangladesh's Liberation War.

A Bangladeshi idea for a global market

While the inspiration remains firmly rooted in Bangladesh, Shekor's audience is international.

Shekor positions itself within the global niche perfume market. Its fragrances are sold exclusively in 50ml bottles priced at €195 (Tk 27,000). Today its fragrances are stocked by specialist retailers in countries including the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Mexico.

To introduce the brand, Abedin has travelled regularly to international perfume exhibitions, including Esxence in Milan and industry events in Paris and Florence, meeting distributors and specialist retailers.

Early signs suggest the fragrances are finding an audience. According to Abedin, retailers in several countries have begun placing repeat orders, while the brand's distributors sold around 40 bottles in July this year alone—a notable figure for a young independent perfume house operating in a specialised market.

Whether perfume can truly capture a country is ultimately impossible to answer. Bangladesh smells different to everyone who has known it.

But through rain, shatkora, black tea, kodom flowers and landscapes, Shekor has attempted something rarely tried: translating Bangladesh into scent.