Nishane: Behind the Brand

In 2010, two Istanbul men met at a mutual friend's birthday party and discovered they shared a long-running interest in niche perfumery. Murat Katran was running a steel export business and had spent thirteen years parallel to it as an actor with Istanbul City Theatres. Mert Güzel had a sociology degree from Galatasaray University and a career in luxury hospitality, including two coffee-table books on the interiors of Turkey's grand hotels. Both were collectors. Neither had ever composed a fragrance. Two years later, in September 2012, they founded Nishane in Istanbul as the first Turkish niche perfume house. Three years after that, the brand launched internationally at Esxence in Milan. Within a decade, Hacivat and Ani had carried the Nishane name into more than a hundred and twenty countries.

This is the Nishane story. Where the founders came from, why they chose Istanbul as the brand's anchor, which European noses they brought in to compose, and how the line reads today through the Khrisha catalogue. For broader context on the niche category, our complete niche perfume guide sets the scene.

Two collectors, one bridge city

Murat Katran and Mert Güzel are not perfumers in the traditional sense. They are creative directors, brand authors, narrative architects, in the modern niche tradition where the founder briefs and edits but does not stand at the bench. Their craft is the choice of story, the choice of perfumer, the editing of the composition through what is typically an eleven month creative cycle per release.

Both are Istanbul-born and Istanbul-based. Both grew up inside a city that has anchored civilisations on either side of the Bosphorus for almost two millennia. The headline Nishane line, that Istanbul is literally a bridge between cultures, is more than marketing. It is the foundational creative claim. The brand uses Istanbul as material in the way a French house uses Grasse, an Italian house uses Bologna, or a British house uses London. Karagöz and Hacivat shadow theatre. The Bosphorus. Hagia Sophia. Anatolian heritage. Mevlânâ Celâleddîn-i Rûmî's poetry. Each release is anchored to a story drawn from the city's long inventory.

The brand's flagship boutique sits at Ahmet Fetgari Sokak in central Istanbul's Nişantaşı district, with a second boutique on Maçka Caddesi in adjacent Şişli. The Istanbul anchor is structural to the brand's identity, not decorative.

The European bench

For composition, Nishane works with a rotating bench of independent and consulting noses, mostly European. The bench reads as a directory of contemporary niche perfumery.

Jorge Lee, the Barcelona-based Spanish perfumer, is the dominant signature voice of the brand's 2013 to 2017 catalogue. Lee composed Sultan Vetiver in 2013, Tuberoza in 2014, Wulong Cha and Pachuli Kozha in 2015, Hundred Silent Ways and Fan Your Flames in 2016, and Hacivat in 2017. Seven of the brand's defining early releases under one nose.

Cécile Zarokian, the French perfumer of Armenian descent, composed Ani in 2019 and Nanshe in 2020, both anchors of the No Boundaries Collection. Ilias Ermenidis composed Ege, the Aegean-Sea release, in 2020. Chris Maurice composed B-612, the Imaginative Collection's Le Petit Prince tribute, in 2018. Dominique Ropion composed Papilefiko, the 2022 Time Capsule release. Anne Flipo is credited on the 2023 Hundred Silent Ways X. Jordi Fernández composed the recent 2025 Meant To Be Seen.

The bench is European because the niche perfumery industry's compositional infrastructure sits in France and Spain, but the brief and the editing happen in Istanbul. The compositional input is European; the creative output is Turkish. That split is the brand's working method.

Hacivat, the breakout

Hacivat was the global breakout. A 2017 chypre-fruity composition by Jorge Lee, built on a scaffold of pineapple, grapefruit, bergamot, jasmine, patchouli, cedar and oakmoss. Within twelve months of release it was being compared, fairly or not, to Creed Aventus across reviewer threads, and it became one of the defining niche fragrances of the late 2010s. Hacivat is the lead character in the brand's Shadow Play Trilogy, alongside Karagöz and Zenne, all composed by Lee, all built around the traditional Karagöz-Hacivat shadow theatre.

Hacivat was not the first Nishane release to travel beyond Istanbul. Wulong Cha had landed in 2015, an oolong tea, citrus and fig composition that established Nishane as a maker of fresh, daylit compositions. Sultan Vetiver and Pachuli Kozha had positioned the brand earlier still. But Hacivat tipped Nishane from respected niche house into globally talked-about niche house. Hacivat Extrait de Parfum remains the brand's signature on the Khrisha floor.

Ani, the cult

Two years after Hacivat, Ani arrived. Composed by Cécile Zarokian, built on a vanilla, amber and tobacco architecture, with bergamot, blue ginger and pink pepper at the top, blackcurrant, Turkish rose and cardamom at the heart, and patchouli, cedarwood, vanilla, benzoin, ambergris, musk and sandalwood in the base. The composition itself is plush, slightly powdery and deeply emotional.

What made Ani a cult release was the story. The fragrance is named for the medieval Armenian capital of Ani, today a UNESCO World Heritage site sitting in ruins on the Turkey-Armenia border. The release was inspired by the Anatolian folk song Sarı Gelin, also known in Armenian as Sari Aghjik, a song shared across the Turkish and Armenian musical traditions and a quiet symbol of cultural connection. Ani launched the No Boundaries Collection, the brand's dedicated line for "the hopeful message of terminating all the emotional borders" between people. Ani Extrait de Parfum is the brand's most culturally loaded release, and the most-discussed Nishane in collector circles.

The rest of the catalogue

The Rumi Collection sits alongside Shadow Play and No Boundaries. Two releases, both by Jorge Lee, both anchored to Mevlânâ quotes. Fan Your Flames from 2016, a coconut, rum, tobacco, tonka and cedar gourmand named for Rumi's line about seeking those who fan your flames. Hundred Silent Ways from the same year, a tuberose, gardenia and vanilla composition named for Rumi's "I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways."

The fresh signature line continues with Wulong Cha, the 2015 Jorge Lee citrus and oolong tea composition, the brand's daylit anchor. Tuberoza from 2014 is the brand's earliest white-floral statement, also Jorge Lee, a creamy tuberose and gardenia softened by orange blossom and grounded in sandalwood and amber.

In 2023, for the brand's tenth anniversary, Nishane released the X Collection, ten anniversary reworks of the foundational releases, each subtly reorchestrated rather than rewritten. Ani X opens with a juicier citrus burst over the original amber-vanilla core. Wulong Cha X warms the green tea with magnolia and a softer floral. Hundred Silent Ways X deepens the original with leather notes. The X line is the way the brand chose to mark a decade, by re-entering its own catalogue with current sensibility rather than launching new collections.

The most recent flagship, Meant To Be Seen from 2025, marks a shift toward more abstract composition. Composed by Jordi Fernández at Givaudan, built on iris, violet, orris butter, civet and white musk, the release reads as a molecular effect more than a traditional note story. The full Nishane collection at Khrisha covers ten live releases.

Where Nishane fits in the wider niche category

For Australian collectors, Nishane sits in a useful position. Below the Frédéric Malle and Roja Dove tier on retail price, while drawing from many of the same noses. Above the mainstream-niche tier on concentration and composition. The Extrait de Parfum format is the visual claim, and the projection and longevity that follows are part of the brand's value proposition. Hacivat and Ani both project. So do Fan Your Flames, Sultan Vetiver and Pachuli Kozha. In a niche category where strength has crept down toward Eau de Parfum, Nishane's commitment to Extrait reads as a deliberate positioning choice.

The cultural identity is the second piece. Istanbul as bridge gives the brand a singular voice in a category dominated by French and Italian heritage stories. For collectors who want a niche house with genuine cultural weight, that identity is the draw.

How Khrisha holds the line

Khrisha Perfumery is an authorised Australian stockist of Nishane, with bottles sourced through authorised channels and shipped from Melbourne. Free shipping applies on orders over $200. Decant samples are available across the line, so Australian customers can compare Hacivat against Ani, Wulong Cha against Wulong Cha X, or Fan Your Flames against Hundred Silent Ways, on their own skin before committing to a full 50ml extrait. The Melbourne floor holds the catalogue in person, and the Khrisha locations page sets out where to find us as the Melbourne network expands.

Continue exploring

• Our complete niche perfume guide
• Niche perfume versus designer fragrance
• Browse the full Nishane collection

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