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SMAGAZINEOFFICIAL.COM FUTURE IS NOW
Back to Basics Rémi Paringaux and Kate Neal left the
fashion industry, moved to the country,
and started a Commune.
By Ebonie Walker
T ucked away in South West England, bordered by the Bristol Channel
and the cathedral city of Gloucestershire, sits the small and idyllic
rural county of Somerset—the headquarters of Commune, and the home
of its founders, husband and wife duo Rémi Paringaux and Kate Neal.
Commune is a premium personal care brand that offers an array of
luxury goods including hand and body washes, creams, bath salts, solid
perfume, and shampoo and conditioner.
On each of its bottles is the tagline “Nature is our reprieve.” More than
that, the couple sees nature as a responsibility and a constant source of
inspiration. It is this reverence for the natural world that sets Commune
apart from other luxury self-care and wellness brands. Paringaux and Neal,
who each had illustrious careers in fashion, left the industry in hopes of
creating a truly sustainable brand.
“I think fundamentally fashion and the fashion calendar cannot be
sustainable,” says Paringaux. “This idea of reinvention—first it was every
six months, now it’s every three months—makes it honestly quite impossible
to be truly sustainable.”
Prior to Commune’s launch in 2022, Paringaux, who was born in Tokyo
and raised in Paris, served as brand creative director for the premium
athletic-apparel company lululemon. Before that, he was the brand image
director at Gucci.
Neal spent nine years as the global sales and merchandising director for
Edun Apparel, the now-shuttered, LVMH-owned luxury brand co-founded
by Bono, before switching to fashion consulting.
After a few years in Vancouver, which Neal describes as a “planet-
positive place that is very mindful of the environment,” the pair moved to
the U.K. and began the work of creating a business together.
The name Commune, just like its products and design, is heavily inspired
by Somerset and its surrounding landscape.
“It’s kind of on a hill. [There’s] probably 30 houses,” Neal explains.
“[During Covid], people were going on walks together and cooking for the
village. There’s a real sense of community. That brought on the name,” she
says. The brand’s signature scent, Seymour, was similarly named after the
nearby village of Bratton Seymour.
The fragrance is layered and hearty. It has top notes of grapefruit and
lemongrass, heart notes of sage, geranium, and lavender, and base notes
of wood and cypress. Neal had previously trained in San Francisco with
Mandy Aftel, who the New York Times once described as “the world’s most
dedicated all-natural perfumer,” and used the knowledge she gained to craft
Seymour using plant-based formulations.
“We [wanted it to smell like] walking through a damp field after an
April shower where you’ve got that kind of earthy smell coming through,”
Neal says. “With the sun kind of shining and, you know, just feeling that
freshness. When you feel really grounded. That’s what we wanted
to convey.”
When she’s finished explaining, Neal apologizes for digressing. But that
“digression” is Commune’s X factor. Everything Paringaux and Neal do is
meticulously crafted and considered.
Take the bottles as another example. They are created with aluminum,
rather than glass or plastic, because it is lightweight (which lowers emissions
during transportation) and can be fully recycled. The pumps were custom
designed using steel and are infinitely reusable. The top of the pump is a
Gothic letter O shape (the duo calls it an Eclipse), which is also used in the
logo, in the carrying case for the solid perfume, as a pin that they gift with
purchases, and as the design on the newly released collection of candles.
“For me, that’s good design,” Paringaux says. “Going back to the basics
and actually birthing something new. Something more interesting that we
would not have thought about before.”
Yet for all the care and attention Paringaux and Neal place on small
details, it’s all in service of a greater mission.
“You know, we live in the countryside, we live in Somerset,” Paringaux
says. “Every day we wake up and we’re in the countryside. We take the kids
to school and cross the countryside. We’re surrounded in nature. We really
notice it a lot. [We want to] safeguard the environment as best we can.”