Tansu Silk

The warm breath that comes off a chest of old kimonos when the lid goes up.

In Japan, things of value, books and kimonos passed on from generation to generation, are stored in wooden chests, and each one carries the history of the family it belongs to. The chest exhales precious textiles kept fresh by incense. The osmanthus accord is the living tree rather than the absolute, which smells of suede and jam. The living one sparkles like peach soda, and when the wind blows in Tokyo it moves the golden, fizzing air through the streets. Bracing hinoki, powdery ambrette and vintage musks bring out the sandalwood's creamy, woody, green colours.

Nos Republic grew out of an eponymous blog, Ksenia Golovanova's first Telegram channel on the subject. The name comes from res publica, a public affair, and rests on the idea that smell is the rawest and least filtered sensation available, and therefore the one that levels people from very different countries and cultures.

The stories start in Golovanova's own culture and are built to carry past it: the longing for space, or a city seen at night from the top of a tall building. Seven releases now, each credited on its own page to the person who made it, Stéphanie Bakouche on four of them and Cristiano Canali, Valery Mikhalitsyn and Maria Golovina on one each. On several products Golovanova signs a material story herself and leaves the rest to the maker.