Believing in The Universe means not ignoring signs. One day Dimitrii opened up the newspaper and saw an advertisement: they were looking for flight attendants. This was something he had been thinking about, it was a sign. He went for an interview and was hired on the spot. He was quickly promoted to the First Class cabin where selling luxury goods to travellers was encouraged. This was where he encountered the world of fine fragrances. But he was selling long before that.
Growing up in 1980’s Russia was tough. In the 90’s things were still tough. At 14 years old he got his first job, working with his mom in the open-air markets selling cigarettes. These markets were found all over Russia, and you could buy anything there: food, clothing, products of every description.
At university he was selling clothing for a small, young, local brand. After that, he started his own company selling office supplies.
Then his first career-type job. It was with a large confectionary company as a salesperson. Within 3 years he was the director of sales, the following year they made him the CEO. This was when he saw the ad in the newspaper. Seeking more, more adventure, more everything, he took the flight attendant job and started travelling the world.
Dimitrii is a Sagittarius and believes strongly in his sign. The sign is full of energy, the love of creating, hard work, drive. He often has 17-18 hour days and he loves it. He’s currently running 15km a day, he lifts: his spirit is very balanced.
After a while he moved to the First Class cabin of a Chinese airline where the focus on luxury and sales of luxury products was everything. The perfumes they offered for sale included exciting brands he’s never heard of. This job also required a move to Beijing – and a new chapter in his adventure had begun.
All the airlines were grounded during Covid, and the troubles had no foreseeable end – what to do, what can be done. And as you might have gathered, Dimitrii isn’t the kind of guy to sit around and wait – off to Montreal, onto the next chapter.
While in Montreal he was having trouble finding the fragrances he had come to love. Looking into it, he noticed that Montreal, and more widely, Canada, didn’t have many small, niche perfume shops. People shopped for perfumes at the luxury department stores – and all those stores sold the same limited brands. Further, ordering from overseas was difficult.
This is when the lightbulb went off, a sign. He saw an opportunity, he was going to address the market and open a shop. The shop was a big success, boasting more than one thousand fragrances, it also had an online component.
On a trip to Toronto a couple of years ago, he fell in love with the city. “I could see my customers walking down the streets”..”Toronto has good street ambiance”. The people and the city spoke to him and he knew he needed to be here. He embarked on a complete survey of the city, walking miles a day in October, up and down and across Toronto’s neighbourhoods. Not surprisingly, he decided that Yorkville was the place.
Fruitful negotiations with a landlord landed him a spot on the west end of Yorkville Ave between Delysées Luxury Desserts and the new Bang & Olufsen store.
Ephyr opens. The name is a custom concoction, a mix of Zephyr and etherial: delicate, light, airy, heavenly, spiritual, gentle, breezy.
Ephyr has 700 fragrances and will add new ones every month. This seems daunting but it’s not. For most people shopping at Ephyr is a guided experience. Are you looking for a signature scent?, for a date, or for work? It’s a winding conversation that allows you to sample many options. It’s a very lovely journey.
With scent – through fragrance, we can revisit lost feelings. Some of his clients will use a perfume on a special trip and never use it again. This anchors the scent to the positive emotions of the trip and they can go back whenever they want just by pulling out the little bottle and smelling the fragrance.
Many of the perfumes seem timeless. Some come from very old brands, or Houses. But some are fun and novel, they seem trendy. Last year people were drawn to gourmand: the scent of popcorn or coffee, etc. And today?, I ask: Clean musk. Think Himalayan air, a clean fog. Interesting, I think.
Dimitrii has a four-person social media team and they have a lot of fun making and posting stories to their Socials. This is a great benefit to the Houses that provide Ephyr’s products, a competitive edge perhaps. The content we make and post “is like a free commercial for them”.
“There are emotions in the bottles” – Dimitrii
Motunrayo, Dimitrii, Ark
The End.
Maison Ephyr
159 Yorkville Ave – (map) (website)
Phone – 437-439-3480
*** You can find Maison Ephyr on Instagram
*** You can find Ark on Instagram
*** You can find the author on Instagram