Dear Alice | Lola James Harper - Scents

Dear Alice + Lola James Harper

An interview with Rami Mekdachi, founder of Lola James Harper

Today on our Dear Alice Podcast we had the privilege to sit down and interview Rami Mekdachi. Rami founded the candle company Lola James Harper in 2013 and has been creating memorable scents ever since then. Not only is he an incredible perfumer, he is also a world traveler, musician, photographer, film director and storyteller of the senses.

Rami and his family love travel and consistently find inspiring places. He takes notes and photos of these experiences and combines them into a candle to create a time warp into those memories.

Rami explains when you smell something you don’t smell just cinnamon - you smell a memory in your childhood or to what it is linked to. He wanted to go to those amazing places that inspire people so that when they have a moment they can go back home with that scent. You can’t see and touch it but yet a mystical element is created. When you talk about the a scent of a space it has to be a raw material. You smell the woods, earth and rain. The smell shelves and old paper from an old vintage vinyl shop. All his candles are very figurative. They create a certain place into your space and triggers a memory.

Rami says it would be a sin not to have a scent for a party. The great events of our lives have a scent to tie us back to that moment. Music as well is so powerful. These two combined create that romantic side of those memories. Having a great moment with your children or having a small link to nice moments. These candles are a chance to give people moments to relive those memories.

Rami Mekdachi

“Whoever, wherever, whenever and whatever we are, we want to be more. Yet we are already enough when we are together.”

Q: Where does the name Lola James Harper come from?

A: It was all from all of my travels with my family. I asked my daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, while having dinner. We were trying to come up with a name. There was no strategy. It is all about the journey and she said why not Lola James Harper?

Q: If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow where would you go?

A: I would go anywhere but it would have to be with people I love.

Q: You don’t have a storefront. Why is that and tell people where they can buy your scents.

A: We love creating memories with others. You have to understand the culture and norms and you have to adapt your belief with their belief and you have to find a place where something comes together. Go towards things that are away and bring them close. Each time I work with different partners it is not that easy. We have our norms and they have theirs. This is how we all grow and learn what we want and what we need. I belive the more we grow up the more we are willing to change. I need to understand and to share. My point is to create a project together. When you know more people and open your understanding you’re not just physically growing old. You are learning more what is truth to other people.

Q: You’ve won awards for your film, With. Why did you decide to create this film?

A: I met a friend and in 2010. We began to play music and once a year we would compose songs. We traveled and filmed all the places and were begining to launch Lola James Harper. We began to sell the pictures we took of our travels. I was mixing a song at the time and talked about friendship and we began to create something nice. We realized by mixing all the songs and pictures it created a quietness. The movie happened through four or five years. The concept was everything I had gathered through these years. All my ideas and all the travels show symbolically how togetherness is created. It was a process. We showed at all of the festivals and we ended up getting a lot of awareness. It was good that I ceased that moment!

I just let things happen. My teammates have to be so flexible because you never know what is going on. When you come to an event or when you are traveling you see what is around you and give it a chance and some things come together. You cease that moment.

Q: What is your favorite scent?

A: Every candle is a favorite memory. So every candle is my favorite.

Q: What candle are you burning right now?

A: At home today I was burning First Morning. We came back from a road trop around Italy and I wanted something that felt like Spring and to reopen my sole.

Q: How would you describe Fall?

A: When you finally begin to be nostalgic and discover all the luck you have.

Q: We always ask people this question: How would you define luxury?

A: For me luxury is a different element. The first element of luxury is you that don’t need it. Second, you need it spiritually. It’s an element that makes you feel higher more refined and you feel more precious. It’s not precious items but rather it’s a feeling. You feel that it’s rarer. For me it the rarity element. What you are feeling is rare. Luxury is going to Rome and having a coffee. You buy the coffee bean and make it at home. It makes you feel that it is more of a rarity. Animals don’t have luxury. It’s not a concept for them. You need to have all those things that make you feel higher, better, more precious. To feel special is luxury. When going to a hotel, the way the people receive you - with flowers, the way the room is, the way the staff interact with their guests - it can make you feel special and precious.

Jess: The last quote you shared is so beautiful everyone should hear this.

A: Whoever, wherever, whenever and whatever we are, we want to be more. Yet we are already enough when we are together.

Jess: What a beautiful life philosophy to live by. And it is enough to be who you are. What a great feeling.

Thank you to Remy and his team for helping make this interview possible. It was truly one of our favorite interviews! We currently sell First Morning and Blitz Motorcycle candles online as well as many other scents in our showroom.

This podcast segment can be found on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcast. Go have a listen!