The Beginning

It started with a growing interest and fascination with scent.

Over time, that interest grew stronger. I began ordering fragrance oils, experimenting and mixing my own scents at the kitchen table in my small one-bedroom apartment in Karlstad, Sweden. I learned by doing, and after a while, I had developed my first fragrance.

At the same time, I began looking more closely at my own family history. My mother has spent years researching our family's roots and the history of Gammalsvenskby. Through her work, I began to understand more about where our family came from, and about the people who once built their lives there. Our old family name was Utas. It is from this name that the house takes its name.

With everything happening in Ukraine, the story of Gammalsvenskby felt more important to me than ever. A place that had carried generations of history was now being affected by a war, and much of the village has since been destroyed.

I have never been to Gammalsvenskby myself. What I know of the place comes through the stories, research and history passed down through my family. Perhaps that is what made me think even more about what happens to a story when the place that carried it is no longer the same.

I wanted to find a way to carry our family's story forward — and, in some small way, a part of the story of Gammalsvenskby itself. For me, that way became perfume.

UTAS is my interpretation of stories through scent. Not an attempt to recreate history, but to give it another language — one built from atmosphere, imagination and interpretation.

The first chapter is 1782.

My name is Rasmus Mattiasson.

This is the beginning of UTAS.

It may have started with the stories of my family and Gammalsvenskby, but UTAS is not limited to where it began. There are many more stories to discover, interpret and tell. Where it goes from here, perhaps only my imagination can decide.

Because every fragrance can carry a story,
and some stories are worth carrying forward.