About Chronotope

Chronotope is an independent applied theory practice & perfume studio based in the gorgeous, historic Virginia Heights neighborhood adjacent to Mead Botanical Gardens in Winter Park, FL.

It was founded in 2020 by the writer, editor, & independent perfumer Carter Weeks Maddox, who continues to lead all aspects of the organization.

Meet Carter →

Carter accepts the overwhelming amount of scientific research and subject-matter expert conclusions that define olfaction as an embodied physiochemical process produced by an integrated cluster of organs networked within the larger human limbic system. Therefore, any scent or combination of scents will invariably prompt embodied, physical, limbic reactions—ie: emotions—from those who encounter them.

This understanding guides Carter’s thinking and approach to crafting perfumes for Chronotope.

Mead Botanical Gardens, Winter Park, FL >>
“This should be taught in school—perfume as immersive confrontational artform […] If anyone says perfume is frivolous […] you should pass them along a vial of this and see how they crawl out apologizing and sopping afterward.”

—Kashina, Author of East of Borneo & Messages from a Dark Room,

(Sound up!)

 An artistic expression of the unity of time and space—in a bottle.

That guiding idea—that perfume can be a vessel for emotion and complexity—shapes every creative decision made in the Chronotope studio. Here’s how it’s taken from theory into practice:



Emotion-First Design
Perfume isn’t only about smelling good or whatever you think it means to smell “sexy”—either of which are preferences that vary broadly from person to person. Perfume is, and has always been, also about feeling something, and Chronotope leans a little harder into this notion than other brands currently tend to be comfortable with doing. And the proof is in the pudding: while our contemporaries are constantly compared against each other, our perfumes have made a name for themselves for being entirely different from the norm—and their difference is the whole point. We’re here to explore what else perfume has to offer beyond reinforcing the same beauty standards that have been around for more than a century. We’re here to discover how else perfume can move you.

Olfactive Tension
Chronotope perfumes invite contradiction, discord, tension, and transformation into a craft broadly sought out for and understood to offer only a highly limited set of specific smells. We do so because we recognize that there’s a whole world of smells still left to explore, and many other experiences of feeling, that perfume has historically ignored—and they’re equally interesting. Even better yet: probing them is rewarding. Because as humans, we don’t spend our entire lives living strictly in beautiful-sexy land. We also struggle, and feel mad sometimes, and we also feel love and passion and overwhelm and hate and more. Perfumery and its fans deserve to have access to work that is responsive to the full range of human experience, rather than remaining pigeonholed in areas that the medium has already plumbed.

”OOO!” not ”ick!”
Chronotope isn’t here to gross you out. We’re here to see what other feelings perfume can activate when it’s not forced to be sexy or a generic sort of “pleasant.” If perfume is only activating those two feelings, then it’s ignoring everything else. We believe that perfume is even more meaningful when it’s responsive to people as whole individuals who are already complete, when it’s helping us to feel seen and heard, and when it meets its wearers where they really are, rather than insisting that wearers be something they’re not. We also believe that as an artistic medium, perfume is more than capable of living up to these beliefs. It just has to be built to do so

Theory Meets Practice
The creation of each Chronotope perfume begins with a question rooted in art, literature, current events, neuroscience, psychology, or cultural critique that Carter can’t seem to find an answer for. Smell is a way to grapple with and resolve these sorts of questions for which words fail. Because all words strive for smell.

Wearer-Led Meaning
Your interpretation matters more than ours at the end of the day. We make the perfumes and write copy about them that we hope conveys our goals and what we’re trying to accomplish with each project. But your experience wearing and engaging with our perfumes ultimately completes that process. Trust your own nose—not ours.

Intrigued? Try some samples →

Core Collection Sample Set

$45.00 USD
$45.00 USD

“The nascent Chronotope aesthetic […] asks a perfume lover to find the unlikable, likable […] There is an opportunity to find a way to enjoyment. You just need to keep at it.”

—Mark Benhke, The Colognoisseur,


“I hope you love what you smell.”

—Carter Weeks Maddox,
Founder, Perfumer & Creative Director at Chronotope