Kevin Costner Partners with Scandinavian Niche Fragrance Brand 19-69

MILAN — On a quiet Sunday morning, Kevin Costner touched down in Milan not only to celebrate his 71st birthday but to reveal a venture into beauty.

The Hollywood star is partnering with Scandi niche fragrance label 19-69, which is poised to have a big year in 2026.

To wit, Costner and 19-69 founder Johan Bergelin hosted an intimate presentation at the brand’s first store, which is to officially open here during Salone del Mobile in April. 

Nestled in Via Borgospesso, in the city’s Golden Triangle and a few steps away from the likes of Acqua di Parma and Byredo, the location was secured 18 months ago, revealed Bergelin. “Kevin came to see me here in Milan and we walked through the shop. He was the first person who saw the space when we started the actual construction, and we came a long way with the shop so far,” said the brand’s founder about the unit, whose interiors are still a work-in-progress but maintained the current industrial appeal and unfinished vibe.

It was only one part of the long-term partnership between the parties, which will see them releasing their first collaborative effort in the coming months. 

“We’ve been cooking for the last two years. [The product is] still on the stove but we will reveal something this spring,” teased Bergelin, who also opened an atelier for fragrance creation and meetings a stone’s throw from the store. “Our plan is to keep developing 19-69, obviously with products related to Kevin’s heritage and life,” he said.

It is understood that the upcoming drop won’t be a one-off, but there will be an ongoing conversation between Bergelin and Costner, who repeatedly highlighted the authenticity of their relationship. 

To be sure, it was the actor to reached out to the brand first. Costner recounted how he stumbled upon the label many years ago, when he stayed at a hotel in Germany during a press tour. “There was a smell of the body wash….I stayed in a thousand rooms but this was pleasant. I enjoyed it without thinking too much about it….[Afterward] I couldn’t remember what it was, what was the name, [and wondered] why I didn’t look closer at something that made me feel good,” he recalled.

For more than a year he thought about the scent on-and-off, he said, before it eventually faded. Four years later, he found it again during another stay while shooting a movie in Glasgow, Scotland. “I got out of the shower, looked for my camera — I thought it was going to disappear again. So took my picture and knew I will find this brand,” he said. “I called my assistant [telling her that] this is the name of the company, [to] call them and [tell them] I’d like to order a case of this and talk to its people….They were so hard to find. It took a great deal of time, so now I was getting obsessed and what I wanted most was just to tell them that in a myriad of products in bathrooms, this one somehow stood out for me.”

Costner eventually managed to connect with Bergelin over a Zoom call, which sparked a conversation “about the company, what we wanted to do, and how I felt about it.”

“And out of that, a slow walk toward each other happened for almost three years, where we understood who we were as people and, as a business, where we wanted to go. A partnership was formed last year and [Bergelin] came and showed me this building,” Costner said. “We’re not afraid of anybody on this street,” he continued, referencing the fashion and luxury players in the tony shopping district. “I recognize what they’ve done. But they had their moment, too. And I think Johan is having his moment.

“I believe in his vision and I want to align myself to someone who’s not trying to stay current or hold on to what’s currently working,” Costner continued. He also highlighted the affinity between the sense of curiosity “that keeps driving me in making movies and driving him in the creation of scents.”

The actor’s own relationship with scent had been limited until meeting Bergelin. “I came from a very conservative background, and the cologne that I wore was what my father wore. It was Old Spice. You just couldn’t get more American. To this day, it reminds me of my father,” he said.

The 19-69 scented body wash that clicked with him was “Rainbow Bar,” a blend of bergamot, bourbon and vetiver inspired by the namesake bar on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. Costner’s choice and appreciation surprised Bergelin himself.

The fragrance is only one of the 22 scents currently in the brand’s portfolio. An autodidact, the Swedish artist and product developer established 19-69 after a two-year-long creative process with artisans across Scandinavia, France and Italy, which led to the launch of the initial five fragrances at Colette in August 2017.

The niche label is known for its mission of “bottling counterculture,” as the different inspirations and narratives intertwined in its products refer to key moments throughout history across art, music and subcultures, with examples ranging from “Purple Haze” evoking Woodstock to “Female Christ,” paying tribute to the namesake radical performance act by Lene Adler Petersen and Bjørn Nørgaard at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1969.

The company’s rich world of references resonated with Costner as much as its products. “I knew the universe was talking to me when [that first body wash] said 19-69. I lived in the ‘60s and it was something that I’ve always cherished in some way. It was an unusual time in America, and the fact that this was named out was really profound to me,” Costner said as he retraced all the cultural changes of the era, spanning from music revolutions to politic turmoil.

“We dressed funny, we let our hair grow. We started to break rules, and to challenge authority. We danced funny, not necessarily even in the rhythm. But we made a promise, and that was that we were going to change the world. And we didn’t,” Costner said. “Our world is still at odds with each other and it’s time for a new generation to really stand up and speak and put their foot down. Their lives are on the line. We’re at war, we’re confused, our environment is threatened as much as ever.”

The actor shared other life considerations when speaking about his relationship with Italy, which was strengthened when one of his films that didn’t resonate in the U.S. found success in the country. “It altered what I think about the world….It made me understand that there was a much bigger world out there,” he said.

Bergelin also praised Milan in explaining why he zeroed in on the city for setting down roots for 19-69. “You have heritage, craftsmanship and the most competitive environment in the world. Everybody is in Milan….Plus the fact you have great knowledge in arts, culture and not only fashion, but style in general. That’s something I find inspiring and I’d like to tap into,” he said. 

Reinforcing the connection, the indie company just named Italian fashion executive Stefano Robino its first chief executive officer, effective Monday. Robino formerly held the same role at Palm Angels and first got in touch with 19-69 three years ago, when the luxury streetwear brand and the fragrance house released a collaboration. It included the “Burning Palm” scent inspired by the philosophy of Dudeism and the “Orange Kush” perfume dedicated to the origins of skateboarding. Incidentally, last year Palm Angels founder Francesco Ragazzi also stepped into the world of high-end fragrances just a few days after exiting his brand, launching the Réservation project backed by Pietro Ruffini’s Archive Srl and involving Hôtel Costes’ former brand director Frédérique Obin.

Cementing the ties with Milan, 19-69 most recently partnered with local soccer club Internazionale Milano on a fragrance that was released before Christmas. Yet the company’s most viral collaboration relates to the literary world, as it tied up with author Bret Easton Ellis on a scent inspired and named after his best-selling book “American Psycho.”