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I have a bone to pick with Aesop.
So guess what, after four years in closed-door and secret research and development, grooming/skincare/wellness brand Aesop finally unveiled their first-ever designer product for home interiors. It’s a heavyweight alright, because it weighs a whopping 1kg. We are talking about this asymmetrically-shaped brass vessel, which functions as an oil burner for the home.
The 30-year old iconic Aussie-based brand worked with industrial designer Henry Wilson (pictured below) for this project, which involved producing the brass oil burners from a traditional wax casting process technique so that every piece looks slightly different in their own special way. Priced at $245 (in 2018), $260 in 2024) here in Singapore, it can be considered as much an art piece as it is a functional home accessory.
I love it! Everything from the matte brass finish, to the unusually captivating form, which reminds me of a molten teardrop that just slid off the cheek of a metal-headed giant. And I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
But that became the source of my disappointment… as the editor of a leading home interiors and design magazine in Singapore, I was hoping that Aesop would get in touch with me about this launch. It was definitely a piece of news I’d want to share with our audience, much like how Hardwarezone hypes about the launch of the latest iPhone series and HerWorld gushes about Chanel's latest Spring/Summer 2019 show at the Paris Fashion Week.
Alas, it was not to be. There were no updates from Aesop even though we had known about the project since this September, and had I not reached out to the local reps in Singapore, this brass burner would have slipped past the attention of myself, and houseproud homeowners and ardent home fragrance lovers here.
What's the point of creating such an outstanding product if you don't shout about it? If a tree had fallen in the middle of a forest and no one heard the crash, did the tree really fall? *cue dramatic debate posture*
Naughty, naughty Aesop. Let this be a fable about remembering to spread word out the next time you have a fantabulous product out on the market. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
Read more about the burner here.