Grace Jones' Candle With Boy Smells Embodies Fluidity
LGBTQ

Grace Jones' Candle With Boy Smells Embodies Fluidity

by Alexandra Hildreth

Boy Smells has teamed up with fashion icon and international megastar Grace Jones to make a new candle, following successful partnerships with country star Kacey Musgraves and fashion brand GANNI.

When Matthew Herman and David Kien co-founded their candle company in 2016 with a LGBTQ+ focus, they never expected to have the opportunity to directly collaborate with a queer legend like Jones. "It has always been a dream of ours to work with Grace Jones," Herman tells PAPER. "Boy Smells is about disrupting gender expectation and Grace had been disrupting gender for decades."

He continues, "She lives the same values of our brand, every day. When we reached out, she was interested. We were over the moon. She especially loved some of our LGBTQIA initiatives and how we encourage radical self-acceptance and expression."

Jones' scent, simply titled "Grace," is inspired by the brand's "genderful" ethos, as well as her home country, Jamaica, and the smells of leather (as a nod to her 1980 song "Warm Leatherette"). The "Grace" candle features notes of black pepper, bergamot, waterlily and cedarwood, with Herman describing the overall scent as "moody, mysterious and beautiful."

"Our collaboration with Grace Jones embodies the beauties of fluidity, and celebrates her boundless identity and subversive ability to transcend definitions while challenging preconceived expectations of her and her gender," Herman says, adding that Boy Smells' own DNA "similarly acknowledges that everyone’s full spectrum of self combines aspects of masculine and feminine, unique to the individual."

The candle launched Wednesday night with a New York Fashion Week kick-off party hosted by Jones herself at the PUBLIC Hotel. RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Symone gave a special performance in celebration of Jones' legacy, with a mash-up of her music and referential, mirrored headpiece.

The Boy Smells "Grace" candle is available today, September 8, online and in select retailers. "Grace" will come in both a 8.5 oz and 27 oz magnum for $46 and $96, respectively.

Photos courtesy of Boy Smells