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In our increasingly sustainability-minded world, I am always in search of things—namely those at the intersection of joy-sparking form and everyday function—worth saving up for, not just for a season, but for years to come. Better yet, a lifetime. That’s how I found myself instantaneously and obsessively drawn to up-and-coming luxury home brand 1986, which offers hand-crafted, intoxicatingly-scented marble candles that double as both timeless and statement-making design pieces. Did I mention they're refillable?
Zahra Ayub, the L.A.-based designer behind the collection, was inspired to create 1986 after reading The Illuminated Prayer, a book on Sufism. “I came across this quote by Rumi that I really liked, ‘Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love,’ so I decided I would just pay attention to things I'm drawn to,” she explains. “I started to notice that I spent most of my time homemaking, decorating, and collecting candles.” Teaming both her passion for design—Ayub studied fashion in her native London and is the former PR director of British fashion house Vivienne Westwood—and the local craftsmanship of her family’s home country of Pakistan (a major producer and exporter of high-grade marble), she set out to “tie in all the little pieces of my life journey and create something unique,” she tells Vogue.
Ultimately, Ayub felt a call to make consciously crafted, refillable objet d'art marble molds for scented candles, a category that could certainly stand to be more eco-friendly, from wax formulations to proper disposal and recycling. It felt exciting from both a design and sustainability vantage point. “I wanted to design a multi-functional candle that could be collected and kept forever and that didn't create waste,” explains Ayub. “I also wanted to use organic coconut-wax and provide a clean safe burn, which wasn’t common in the market. I knew that from being a lover of candles.”
It was also an opportunity for Ayub to build on her lifelong predilection for fragrance and explore the inextricable link between scent and memory. “Scent has always been a big part of my life,” says Ayub. “As a kid I was addicted to certain smells like the scent of my mum’s cardigan, but also had to stop hanging out with someone who wore too much perfume because it gave me a fever and a throat infection.” Later in life, she learned this was no coincidence. During a perfume course, she took a test and discovered that she has scent synesthesia, a neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sense leads to experiences of another one.
“I can taste scent very intensely, which explains my low tolerance for most scents and odors,” she says. As such, each of the five fragrances—smoky woodsy Marfa, feminine floral Melrose, fresh earthy Marylebone, sweet verdant Megeve, and bright woody Yosemite—went through an intensive formulation process, in which Ayub used scent-memory techniques to bring each fragrance to life. “When I'm in the lab, I'll mix fragrances based on the memory I'm trying to create, so if there is rain [for example], then I'll use petrichor, which is the smell of when rain lands on the earth,” she explains.
The sleek, striking gold-stamped candles come in white marble, black marble, and green onyx, and each lid is designed to be used as an ashtray or an incense holder. “The way the marble glows when the candle is burning is just so beautiful, especially through the green onyx,” says Ayub, who was so enamored by the beauty of the candles in use, she felt compelled to create the first-of-its-kind 07 table candle, a made-to-order furniture piece that can be used indoor or outdoors and has a burn time of over 2,280 hours.
“This concept came from just being so in awe of how the very first white marble candle turned out that I was like, ‘What if I made an even bigger size?’ and that turned into, ‘What if I made one that could also be used as an accent table or stool?’” explains Ayub. “The owner of the wax factory always tells me the 07 table is the masterpiece of his career!”
A year and half into the global pandemic, as many of us are still spending more time at home, 1986’s offerings encapsulate so much of what we’re looking for right now: timeless beauty, olfactory escapes, and utilitarian design. The gift potential, whether for yourself or a loved one, is ripe. As for what lies ahead? Ayub doesn’t want to box herself in when it comes to the possibilities for 1986. The driving concept is simple: “Anything to do with relaxing at home.”
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