Written by LAURA REGENSDORF

Body care, at its essence, is the first step in getting dressed. Formula textures call to mind fabric metaphors, as with a silky hand serum or a cream that wears like cashmere. Then there’s scent—the element that, if executed through an artistic lens, can evoke the character play of a Tim Walker fashion editorial. For the Sidia founder Erin Kleinberg, whose start in magazines paved the way to an in-the-know beauty consultancy, her interest in creative world-building now manifests as transporting, all-over fragrances. The latest scent, Midas—making its anticipated debut in The Wash and The Cream, only at VIOLET GREY—has a burnished quality, with notes like black pepper, suede, and amber. Here, Kleinberg unpacks its creation.

THE SCENE

For Kleinberg, the idea to create a body care brand drew upon different facets of her career. At the start was a pivotal internship assisting the fashion director at W, which sent her sprinting around Manhattan as she absorbed how clothing and accessories shaped larger-than-life fantasy. Next came her namesake line of embellished T-shirts—the definition of an elevated wardrobe staple—which landed at Barneys New York and on the set of Gossip Girl. She launched the editorial platform Coveteur, peering inside the closets of the creative community and seeing how people really live with their most treasured things. By the time she established Métier Creative, landing clients like Ouai, Chanel, and Victoria Beckham Beauty, she already knew how to tell stories and cultivate desire. Building that for herself was the next step. 

In the days leading up to the 2020 pandemic, the death of her grandmother, Sidia, cemented her resolve to create a fitting homage. “She immigrated here with nothing, and she was my everything,” says Kleinberg of the Polish-born Holocaust survivor, who collected Nina Ricci perfume and slathered on hand cream while drinking tea. Here was a chance to reimagine body care, with conscientious ingredients and considered fragrances. The scents Wired and Braless—which debuted as candles in 2022 before finding their way to the skin—suggested the start and end of a day, but there was room for something opulent.

THE NAME

“When I was young, I always read the book, King Midas and the Golden Touch,” says Kleinberg. “My grandmother gave it to my mom, she gave it to me, and I still have the copy.” As a newcomer in the fashion community, she felt a thrill when she’d come across real-life Midas figures—people like the longtime Vogue editor Hamish Bowles, who had the eye and the sway to anoint new talent. After her grandmother passed away, Kleinberg met with a medium. “The first card she pulled was the King of Earth. She was like, “This is the Midas Touch card.” Kleingberg recalls the flash of goosebumps. The name kept turning up, and she was beginning to see Midas as connected to transformation. She thought of the poise her grandmother radiated, her impeccable posture. “She took a lot of pride in how she presented herself.” 

THE SCENT

“We built this fragrance around that confidence,” says Kleinberg. She began working with the perfumer Jérôme Epinette, sharing a mix of keywords and fashion references and photos of Sidia. She wanted a mood more than an identifiable note. “I like when you can’t tell what a scent is, but you know that it’s engulfing you in a feeling of arrival, this golden touch.” Epinette’s eventual creation has an earthy, simmering base with notes of suede, amber, and sandalwood; there’s the perennial flower cyclamen, plus coconut water and a dusting of black pepper. “It’s not the loudest fragrance in the room,” says Kleinberg, “but when you come close to someone, it really captures you—it has that addictive quality.”

THE DESIGN

Kleinberg didn’t want to follow the minimal, sans-serif playbook used in the current era of packaging. “My biggest complaint was that a lot of clean beauty brands were very beige and boring,” she says. “Why can’t it be moody and sexy and evoke a different type of feeling?” The campaign stars the model Erin Wasson—a favorite of the late Karl Lagerfeld—in a fur coat and nameplate Midas necklace. The vessels for The Wash and The Cream—both exclusive to VIOLET GREY—are a distinctive pale blue and a deep near-black, respectively. The Hand Serum comes in an airless pump, the better to safeguard the formula. It’s long on hydration, with glycerin and hyaluronic acid alongside brightening niacinamide and peptides; avocado and shea butters help seal everything in.

For the typography, Kleinberg went with a delicate serif. “The meaning of Sidia has to do with serenity and calm,” she says, “but my grandmother actually was embarrassed by her name.” It was unusual in Toronto, pegging her as a transplant. But Kleinberg did get the chance to tell Sidia that she planned to christen the company after her. “After me?” she had asked, honored to play a role in her granddaughter’s new business. “If you look at it from a design perspective, the name is beautifully weighted,” Kleinberg adds. Three consonants, separated by two slim Is, their upright posture just like Sidia’s.

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