Ceramic Cigarettes, Tobacco Cologne: A Sly, Smoke

Jul 07, 2023

By Laura Regensdorf

In my ideal writer's setup, there are always two cigarettes within arm's reach. One bears a faint kiss of red lipstick; the other is a stubbed-out squiggle. Both are ceramic (smoking's not for me), but they are talismans nonetheless—part of artist Amiee Byrne's body of work that recasts everyday objects in clay. Past pieces include a coiled extension cord, a stack of pastel dish sponges, a deflated Mylar balloon. But her cigarette series, which spans large vases and a ceramic-topped fragrance collaboration (Smoker's Kiss) with perfumer Emily L’Ami, has lit a collective fuse. Her upcoming solo show, "Aftermath," opening June 24 at Los Angeles's Franchise gallery, illustrates the point. Alongside imaginative new vignettes—an exploded piñata, say, or the disaster zone following a toddler's tantrum—there will be a self-contained little smoke shop, for anyone needing a facsimile fix.

"This cancerous stick is so special to so many people," says Byrne, an Australian with a studio in Los Angeles's Silver Lake. "People really, really identify with it, and for lots of different reasons." There is the cinematic glamour, the youthful transgression, the rituals after dinner and sex. A loved one's pack-a-day habit triggers sensory memories; quitting does too. (My grandfather kept celery sticks in his shirt pocket: a substitute for chewing tobacco.) In an oblique way, smoking—loosely defined, with room for incense and tobacco-inspired cologne and Byrne's individual cigarette butts, which she is offering for sale for the first time—made sense as an organizing principle for this offbeat Father's Day guide. Everyone can relate.

True to the theme, the artist Bernie Kaminski has created a limited run of papier-mâché matchbooks for this occasion. (For details, see the listing below; proceeds go to Aid For Life, which provides assistance to asylum seekers in New York City.) His now 15-year-old daughter, Eleanor, unwittingly lent the first stroke of inspiration, bringing home a papier-mâché seahorse from school. In the years since, Kaminski has fashioned autographed baseballs, restaurant guest checks, a municipal pay phone. "I made some matchbooks that I put in a fake junk drawer," he says, referring to a veritable magnum opus: Casio calculator, Film Forum ticket stub, measuring tape, ketchup packets, Rolaids—plus the black-and-white Odeon matches he has recreated for Vanity Fair. "It was only after I got the idea to put [the matchbooks] in a shoebox"—papier-mâché Adidas, filled nearly to the brim—"that I started cranking them out."

Meanwhile, the chef and food scientist David Zilber offers a counterpoint to smoking with his new edition for Rose, the California-based cannabis outfit known for its produce-driven Delights (a riff on the Turkish sweets). Zilber, a Noma alum who co-wrote the restaurant's sprawling guide to fermentation, got acquainted with the brand by test-driving samples in Copenhagen, including past collaborations with Enrique Olvera and Natasha Pickowicz. "I’ve long suffered from back pain (20 years in kitchens + scoliosis is a recipe for disaster), and their CBD gummies really, actually, worked to chill my nerves and muscles out whenever my lumbar was acting up," he writes by email. "And as for the THC, well, they’re just perfect. Easy to dose and genuinely delightful." Zilber momentarily had his hands full with a new baby, but the Rose partnership picked up late last year, "when I only just started to feel like I was getting the whole ‘being a dad’ thing under my belt." His creation—Nashi pear with kimchi brine and a dusting of gochugaru—reflects a bright, inventive worldview. "Leaving the high-octane life of fine dining opened up so much for me, including fatherhood," he adds. "That said, I’m currently more exhausted than ever. Haha."

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Beautiful incense is not in short supply, with brands like Astier de Villatte and Binu Binu casting spells of Roman villas and Korean ink rituals. But when Aesop debuted its first collection earlier this spring, it earned an immediate place among the top-shelf entries. This one blends hinoki (a Japanese cedar) with warming cinnamon and clove, at once familiar-smelling and strangely new. Pair it with Vogel Studio's bronze incense burner for Aesop, with an oblong design like a mollusk washed ashore.

Artist Amiee Byrne isn't a smoker, but she is a connoisseur of the cigarette butt. "In front of my studio, there's this kind of event nightclub," she says by phone from LA. "Every single night there's a different party, and so every single day, it's just a gold mine." Over the years, she has made hundreds of trompe l’oeil ceramic replicas, representing every permutation along the cigarette's short life cycle: flattened, bent, lipstick-stained, stubbed out or still aglow. Up till now, Byrne has never sold them individually. They’ve turned up in larger installations (say, clustered in a corner with a ceramic mop) and limited editions, and she has occasionally handed them out as gifts. "They were always just my little calling card," she says. Luckily, ahead of "Aftermath," her upcoming solo show at Franchise, Byrne is opening up a pre-order list. To purchase an individual butt ($50), email [email protected]. Those interested in her large cigarette vase ($1,200) and perfume collaboration with Emily L’Ami ($450) can also inquire.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

The label illustration calls to mind a Manhattan prewar apartment, where maple wood and leather notes would feel studiously at home—but this scent is more so a clever ode to basketball. Notes of rubber, red oak, "kicks" set the scene. There's an archival nod, too, by way of the peach baskets that served as hoops in early gymnasiums. It's an enveloping winner, no matter the level of fandom. The Miami Heat's logo gets it right: basketball set aflame.

There's a ribbon of nostalgia in Bernie Kaminski's papier-mâché work. Beige landline phone, vintage Wilson tennis racket, kitchen spices seemingly pulled from a time capsule—it's as if all are reanimated through his hand-painted reconstructions. A shoebox full of matchbooks puts departed New York restaurants (Lucky Strike, Fez) alongside enduring ones (Veselka, Fanelli's). "Florent—my wife used to live a few blocks away from there, and I get bummed out whenever I walk by and see whatever is in that spot now," says Kaminski. (His homage to the all-night diner is open-face, with a single match left.) The artist's 15-year-old daughter used to make fun of these laments, Kaminski says, but recently Alleva Dairy—their go-to spot for cheese in Little Italy—closed its doors. "She was just like, ‘I don't understand. How would that close?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, get used to it. That's what it's going to be like now for you.’" Sometimes being a parent means communicating hard truths; it means getting the good mozzarella while you still can. Fortunately the Odeon, immortalized in this limited run of matchbooks ($150 each), is alive and well. To inquire about purchasing, message Kaminski via Instagram. Proceeds go to Aid For Life, which provides assistance to asylum seekers in New York City.

A crown for a king—or whoever in the household might have a thing for Austrian modernism. The family-run workshop still continues to produce the collectible designs of its forebears (Carl II is behind this patinated brass piece, designed in the early 1950s). If the lead time (4 to 6 weeks) poses a problem, the vintage Auböck stash at Patrick Parrish's New York gallery might offer immediate gratification.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

Leather-bound shears for overgrown wicks: It's hard to deny the appeal of a very specific, lavishly made tool. (Victorian-era pickle forks in sterling silver also come to mind.) This Loewe object, recalling Carl Auböck's pieces in brass and leather, begs a place in a well-ordered study. Or take them to the terrace before relighting one of the brand's new four-wick outdoor candles—essential mood lighting (with mosquito-repelling benefits) for sunset aperitivos.

This sensuous fragrance, part of a suite of scents that Christopher Niquet created with Régime des Fleurs, is the kind that passers-by inquire about. A musky, oud-laced composition, it's inspired by the Moroccan painter Hassan El Glaoui: "his depictions of cavalry, their elegance and smoking guns." There's a hard-charging quality wrapped up in grace—hovering on skin, rather than weighing it down.

Ever since Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's personal effects landed at auction—including the thrift shop double bed that anchored their endearingly termed "Fuck Hut"—it seemed only appropriate to pay homage to that hot dad in this context. Pinstripe pajamas are in order—perfect for a post coital cigarette. This respected Roman clothier has just the set, with a subtle tricolore color scheme to inspire a vacation reverie.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

For fathers and the rest of us, life is about toggling between being present and tiptoeing away—both can be restorative. In this case, founder Kristofer Vural hopes that his fanciful toothpaste (formulated with fluoride) might offer a reprieve via a bouquet of cinnamon, wintergreen, and grapefruit. So fresh, so clean.

Laila and Nadia Gohar, the Cairo-born sisters behind Gohar World, know how to dream up homewares that arrive dressed in their party best. A new capsule collection with Rym Beydoun's Super Yaya continues the through line of traditional craft and conviviality, with checkerboard carryalls designed for picnicware, bouquets, and bottles. The cotton fabric, known as bazin, is dyed by artisans in Côte d’Ivoire and then handwoven at Super Yaya's Beirut atelier. Slip in a chilled summer white, hit the park, and raise a toast to dad.

"I DARED to stay off drugs until my 20s. I was the famed marketing campaign's target audience, after all, so I guess it worked," chef and food scientist David Zilber writes by email, looking back with appreciation on his straight-edge teen years. "But since getting high for the first time on a beach in Tel Aviv at the age of 22, I always saw it as a great way to relax, laugh a little, and think too much (in a good way)." Zilber, who co-wrote the celebrated Noma Guide to Fermentation (Artisan, 2018) while overseeing its fermentation lab, has since moved on from restaurant life. "I, like many during 2020, took part in ‘the great resignation,’ after my very first acid trip made me realize there's a lot more to life than busting your ass to make someone else rich or literally breaking your back on the grind," he says, alluding to lumbar pain exacerbated by scoliosis. Zilber approaches such substances with curiosity and rigor, describing "recreational drugs as special places to visit rather than slot machines to abuse." The chef's collaboration with the cannabis brand Rose echoes that transportive effect: His Rose Delights recipe, available in CBD and THC formats, marries the sweetness of Nashi pear with the dialed-down funk of kimchi brine. "Rose claims they help people to sleep like babies," says Zilber, father to a 10-month-old. "But after having one (a baby, that is) myself, I can attest that no one's getting good sleep around here." Godspeed!

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

This atmospheric scent centers on paper's unpredictable turns—not altered by flame but rather ink. Diptyque partnered with artist Alix Waline to create cloudlike illustrations that mirror the olfactive cues: white musk set against a rice steam accord, with warm wood and mimosa rounding out the fragrance. It could be a fit for any manner of writer: of songs, law briefs, emoji-filled texts.

"Paper is a formidable, malleable material that everyone touches on a daily basis," the artist Thomas Demand told The Paris Review earlier this year, brushing off the idea that modern digitization is distancing us from the medium of newspapers and love notes and ticket stubs. Paper remains—never so transfixing as it is in Demand's photographs, which present everyday vignettes in uncanny recreations. This spring's expanded edition of The Dailies (Mack) collects scenes that make an outsize impression: coffee cup nestled in a chain-link fence, runaway receipt tumbling off a desk like a waterfall; cigarette stubs in communion.

The first sunscreen from this minimalist beauty brand is designed to keep things effortless: a mineral formula designed to blend seamlessly into all sorts of skin tones. Discerning types will appreciate its understated form and function—a lesson in looking cool while not getting burned.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

This is banana-rama in the best possible way—for the person interested in tropical escapes and design-world homages. For their latest candle, the Maine-based couple behind Wary Meyers angled for a fragrance that evokes a postcard-worthy scenario: "You just lopped off a bunch from a banana palm to use as a pillow as you fall asleep on a hot exotic beach," they write. But that's only half the fun. The rest arrives via the accompanying 14 stickers—a modern Mad Men exercise in co-opted branding, with riffs on Supreme, Chiquita, Diptyque, and even Maurizio Cattelan's duct-tape Art Basel stunt.

A meal's end might send diners stealing outside for a smoke; for others, it's all about lingering around the table with a box of sweets. These newcomers from Casa Bosques are a way to show some fatherly appreciation (or to thank hosts for a plum dinner-party invitation). A clutch of candied orangettes in 70% dark chocolate hits that bitter-sweet divide.

Who couldn't use a shiny slipcover for a Bic lighter? Tetra, the design shop with a cannabis bent, has unearthed a trove of these vintage brass pieces—for the pocket, the coffee table, the junk drawer. A sensible thrill.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

This face wash, like the rest of Francisco Costa's thoughtful line, showcases South American ingredients in the form of an elevated staple. Best massaged into dry skin, the oil-based cleanser features urucum and Amazonian andiroba oils, which help dissolve surface-level matter; with a bit of water, it transforms into a milky texture for easy rinsing. Consider it an end-of-day unwind—inhale, exhale.

The beachcomber with a stylish streak would do well with Baina's signature checkboard towel. (Perhaps he already has the bathmat and hand towel in poppy red or sage green.) This colorway draws out the tobacco mood, as if Jean-Paul Belmondo were sprawled out, pouting into Godard's camera somewhere in the South of France.

It's fitting that there would be an undercurrent of tobacco in this limited-edition incense with French makeup artist Violette, which launched this spring at Le Bon Marché. Parisian bureaux de tabac are a fixture of the street scene; ditto their wares. Here, that olfactory note is blended with patchouli, carnation, and leather, for a gesture as offhandedly alluring as her maquillage. A custom version of the Cinnamon Projects brass burner, here with a glass disc in Violette_FR's cobalt blue, strikes a handsome note—kin to classic after-shave bottles.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

This bar, whose beans are sourced from a community of farmers in the Dominican Republic, is already suited up for gift-giving, given the packaging's plumes and swirls. Give it to a sweet-toothed father figure, who might have a palate discerning enough to tease out the suggested "green banana" tasting notes.

When smoky mezcal is the drink of choice, let the glassware bring its own plumes. A 2021 trip to Oaxaca planted the seed for this mouth-blown vessel by designer Kalen Kaminski (there's a matching bottle as well). Each piece exhibits its own pattern of swirls, as if bringing a little genetic variation to the tablescape. "We love wrapping up a day at the studio with a few sips of mezcal out of the cup," says Kaminski. "It's all you need and takes the edge off."

This new brand, created by Haitian-born cofounders Nathania Dominique and Harvey Gedeon, puts the local djon djon mushroom front and center. (A delicacy that springs up after the rain, it's shown to have anti-inflammatory effects and is rich in moisture-binding beta glucans.) The introductory trio of products includes this lightweight gel cream—an ideal summer quencher.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

Some dads have a soft spot for the occasional cigar; others are storytellers, known for bringing far-flung tales to life. The inspiration behind Royal Tobacco (a 2023 Fragrance Foundation winner in the best indie category) is evocative on both counts. It imagines the scene inside Cuban cigar factories, where a figure known as El Lector would keep workers entertained with the likes of Poe, Balzac, and Melville. The survey of notes here is a similarly well-traveled lot, with frankincense, oud, and vetiver alongside softer rose and tonka bean. It pairs well with a gifted audio book—literature for the modern multitasker.

For certain cooks, fire trumps all—which gives peak barbecue season something of a religious significance. In such cases, only hand-forged tools will do. This UK–made set arrives by way of the retail site Toast, which specializes in finding offbeat goods that celebrate their makers. A hand-woven bandana for the grill devotee could be a good runner-up.

This seasonal body oil from the Spanish beauty brand is the sort of thing you use to the very last drop. The golden formula—featuring carrot seed oil, rich in beta carotene, alongside buriti and jojoba—delivers a post-shower dose of nourishment. But the subtle scent is the attraction, giving its best impression of liquid sunshine. There are citrusy notes of bergamot and neroli, plus a hint of Tahitian monoi to evoke vacation even on a suit-and-tie Monday.

By Bess Levin

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Kase Wickman

For the aesthete, the minimalist, the person who prefers a few choice heirlooms over indiscriminate stuff: Enter these candlesticks, faithfully recreated from an 1806 design by Viennese silversmith Carl Scheiger. (The shop at Manhattan's Neue Galerie would like you to call for the price: 212.994.9496. If you should pay a visit, be sure to snag a slice of sachertorte at Café Sabarsky while you’re there.) Compact and low to the table, the candlesticks were created with portability in mind—whether you’re headed to the country or a backyard dinner party.

Linen sheets in this tobacco shade feel somehow on point for this moment. It summons the tropics, as if in tune with a palate of rubber trees and unfamiliar roadside fruit. Sleep with the windows open before the mid-summer heat creeps in. Bring the morning coffee back into bed.

This royals-approved brand has homed in on a certain kind of dad, creating a fragrance portfolio that refashions the expedient shower into a sensorial occasion. Less a cigar bar situation, more a well-rounded mix with bergamot and cedar, the Tobacco Absolute body wash is a fan favorite.

By Rebecca Ford

By Keziah Weir

By La rédaction de Vanity Fair