Fragrance house

Brain Dead

Brain Dead was launched in Los Angeles in 2014 by Kyle Ng and Ed Davis as an apparel brand drawing on post-punk, underground comics, and subculture. It developed into a broader cultural platform spanning film, events, art, food, objects, and artworks. Brain Dead Studios, established in a former cinema on Fairfax Avenue, combined cinema, events, a showroom, restaurant, and store. Ng’s interests in film, music, games, food, and other subcultures shaped the brand’s expansion into a wider cultural project. Brain Dead also presents itself as a catalyst and meeting place for creative people and contemporary subcultures. Its fragrance work began with Portland-based Maak Lab: Shroom Cola was released in 2020, pairing woodsy mushroom notes with a sweet soda-pop character, and is identified as the brand’s signature scent. A later collaboration with MALIN+GOETZ reinterpreted the Leather scent through a limited-edition capsule.