There’s a way sitting down to journal seems to pause time, similar to how lighting a candle with a familiar scent can transport you to a specific place. For model and entrepreneur Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, it’s precisely the slowness in these small rituals that became the foundation for Mémoire, her new luxury keepsake brand that launches today, May 12. “I’ve always been drawn to objects that hold meaning and things that have been lived with, rather than simply owned,” Huntington-Whiteley tells Vogue. “I’m one of those people that collects all birthday cards, all my children’s drawings. These are the kind of things that really inspired this idea of objects holding memories.”
There was a time when gestures like a handwritten note were commonplace: “My mother’s generation used to send thank-you cards, write diary entries—that’s simply how they went about things,” she says. “And now, we’re seeking out the analog world because it feels like an old tradition gone by.” Alongside Westview Ventures founders Meaghan Cox, Julia Hunter, and Jackie Beyer-McCabe, who she tapped to co-found Mémoire, Huntington-Whiteley used this sensibility as a guiding light. The result: a highly limited, carefully considered collection (just seven items, to be exact), with each piece designed specifically to help its owner tap into the rituals of slower living.
Courtesy of Memoire
Courtesy of Memoire
Visually, Huntington-Whiteley rooted Mémoire in four distinct “worlds,” designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia and romance: High Castle, Love Birds, Secret Garden, and Glass Lake. Each offers its own identity through pattern, scent, and color. “The worlds bring such richness and depth to the aesthetic of the brand and I’m excited to see where people sit among them,” she says.
The line starts at $185; an investment to be sure, but every piece—from the pebbled leather notebooks and luggage tags that were made in an Italian family-run factory to the hand-blown glass vessels that house the candles—reflects a commitment to longevity. The candles come in two sizes, in thick, amber-toned glass casing that you can use as decor well after you’ve burned them. The leather journals (which Huntington-Whiteley says she carries with her everywhere) are substantial, with a sleek, leather-wrap closure that’s most practical for life on the go. And every item can be emblazoned with a personal touch, whether that’s initials, meaningful dates, or names. “Personalization makes it something you want to hold on to. It makes something really feel like your own,” she adds.
