Troye Sivan has always been consumed by nostalgia. His music — pulsating synths set against funky house rhythms — borrows from 90s dance numbers; his style, inspired by vintage Helmut Lang and Prada.
It’s no coincidence that his new fragrance brand, Tsu Lange Yor, too was designed to evoke a “sense of home and nostalgia,” the pop singer told BoF. The signature scent, TLY 5755 is reminiscent of “warm wooden furnishings,” Sivan said, and contains notes of sandalwood, coumarin and Tasmanian mountain pepper.
“I possess a deep sense of homesickness,” said Sivan, who will embark on a US tour alongside British singer Charli XCX in mid-September. “Growing up in a tight knit and very close family, travelling was tough. That’s when I realised the power of scent for the first time.” Sivan, who grew up in Perth, Australia, would carry a candle on his travels to light in hotel rooms as a remedy for homesickness.
Last year, Sivan launched Tsu Lange Yor alongside his brother Steele Mellet. Tsu Lange Yor is a Yiddish toast that means “to long years.” The label currently offers four scents in perfumes and candles, as well as a few home objects. It taps into the $70 billion global fragrance sector that’s projected to swell to $100 billion in 2027, according to BoF’s 2023 State of Fashion: Beauty report.
Tsu Lange Yor joins an already-crowded pool of brands hoping to capitalise on the fragrance boom. New and buzzy brands such as Sol de Janeiro, D.S & Durga and Byredo have taken market share from traditional players like Chanel and Rabanne in recent years. Other new entrants will include Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, whose parent company Kering created an in-house beauty arm in 2023. And Sivan is hardly the only pop star eyeing the category; Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and Harry Styles have all launched their own perfumes.
But being linked to a famous face is no longer sufficient for a brand to stand out. Consumers today are not merely susceptible to marketing; they’re educated on the ingredients and overall quality of products. To stand out among competitors, Tsu Lange Yor will dive headfirst into wholesale, and has inked partnerships with retailers in Australia, Europe and North America in the last few months. It also has plans to further penetrate key markets through pop-up events. So far, the brand has held activations in New York and Melbourne, Australia.
The Celebrity Brand Curse
For every Rare Beauty and Rhode, there are dozens of celebrity-backed lines with lukewarm success, including J.Lo’s JLo Beauty, Brad Pitt’s Le Domaine and Ellen Degeneres’ Kind Science. These labels are met with indifference at best, and at worst, ire from disenchanted consumers who see the brands as a mere cash grab.
Despite starring in the brand’s campaigns, Sivan hopes his star power does not overshadow the purpose of the brand’s real value proposition.
“We didn’t ever want to rely on, or even really stress so hard that this is a ‘celebrity-founded brand,’” said Sivan. “For us, it was equally as important that it’s founded in Carlton, Australia, and celebrates Australian botanicals and Australian ingredients and Australian creatives.”
The brand’s homeware offering — sculptural brass bowls, oil burners and dreidels — was made in collaboration with Joel Adler, an industrial designer based in Sydney. The TLY 5755 scent was made in partnership with perfumer Craig Andrade, the nose behind Australian brand The Raconteur.
Rather than leveraging his fame, Tsu Lange Yor can be interpreted as an extension of Sivan’s existing credibility in the beauty space, said Sivan, who is known for experimenting with his look, often changing his hair colour and recently sporting a drag ensemble for his music video for the song “One of Your Girls.” Prior to founding Tsu Lange Yor, he served as YSL Beauty’s ambassador and is currently the face for hair care brand Schwarzkopf. Last month, he was named Rabanne’s first global makeup ambassador.
“I want to continue to work with brands that I feel are exciting, while keeping space for Tsu Lange Yor to exist,” said Sivan, who also often represents Prada. “The point of difference is that Tsu Lange Yor is entirely me, my ideas and tastes and influences and my partnerships with other brands are collaborations.”
The Rush to Scale
Compared to its celebrity brand counterparts, Tsu Lange Yor’s business model stands out for its early embrace of wholesale.
A month after launch last year, the brand inked a partnership with Dover Street Parfums Paris, said Mellet, the brand’s managing director. Last month, it added e-commerce site Ssense and Australian beauty retailer Mecca as stockists.
Sivan and Mellet hope to venture into textile-based products, including blankets, next and expand their fragrance portfolio in the next few months, as well as partner with larger retailers in the US, a key market for the label.
“It would be a lot easier to white label a product, slap your name on at the end and call it a day,” said Sivan. “For me, home is obviously such a personal thing. It’s the most personal thing. I want to focus on the process … of making interesting, creative work.”
