ABOUT EDWARD GOREY

A prolific illustrator and author, he conjured a universe where
Victorian decorum meets gothic absurdity. His world is populated by
wide-eyed orphans, swooning governesses, mysterious creatures, and

terrible, but often hilariously understated, fates. With meticulous pen-
and-ink drawings and a dry, morbid wit, Gorey made the macabre

feel elegant and the absurd feel strangely comforting.
To step into his work is to enter a haunted dollhouse: every detail
exquisitely rendered, every shadow hiding a story. His books are
like perfume, deceptively small, but rich with hidden layers, strange
moods, and lasting impressions.

Whether you’ve encountered his illustrations unknowingly on
PBS’s Mystery! or are discovering him for the first time, Edward
Gorey’s art invites you to linger in the strange, to delight in the dark,
and to find beauty where no one else dares to look.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATION

Edward Gorey has long been a kindred spirit in the shadowed corridors
of our imaginations. His world, exquisitely drawn, wryly sinister, and
curiously elegant, has always felt like an invitation: not to escape
reality, but to enchant it. When the opportunity arose to collaborate
with the Edward Gorey Trust, it felt less like a professional venture
and more like a long-awaited séance with a beloved muse.

At Heretic, scent is storytelling. It is atmosphere in liquid form.
Working with Gorey’s universe, we wanted to craft fragrances that
didn’t simply nod to his aesthetic but rather entered it, slipping
through the inky lines of his illustrations, wandering the damp halls
of his crumbling mansions, rustling the pages of his sardonic tales.
What would these places smell like? What perfume would waft from
the cloak of The Doubtful Guest? Or from the parlor where Millicent
met her fate?

Each scent in this collection was composed as a kind of olfactory
vignette, infused with eerie elegance, dry humor, and a hint of decay.
We sought rare botanical notes with curious textures and haunting
resonance: crumpled black tea leaves, violet pastilles turned to dust,
worn leather-bound books, pipe smoke curling into the gloom. These
are not polite perfumes. They are eccentric companions, meant to
haunt and amuse in equal measure.

EPLORE THE HERETIC X EDWARD GOREY ROOM SPRAY COLLECTION

 

The collaboration crescendoed with A Very Gorey Holiday, our most
delightfully macabre campaign to date. To conjure the spirit of a
Gorey Christmas was an ecstatic exercise in irreverent beauty. The
holidays, so often draped in saccharine cheer, were instead rendered in
bone-dry wit and velvet shadows. It was pure joy to translate Gorey’s
iconic imagery into surreal holiday tableaux, each one infused with
the strange glamour and dark sparkle that define both his work and
ours.

This project has been nothing short of a creative séance, equal parts
reverence, mischief, and magic. Through scent, through image,
through the whispered absurdities of the season, we invite you to step
into a Gorey world. Strange delights await.

EPLORE THE VERY GOREY GIFT GUIDE