Talking Orange Trees with Austin Butler

On the eve of New York Fashion Week, Austin Butler was at the Times Square Edition for an evening celebrating YSL's Myslf perfume. The actor was revealed as the ambassador for the new men's fragrance last month, and his campaign played on loop behind the DJ booth throughout the evening.

“I've been a fan of YSL for a long time. Many years, just aesthetically,” Butler said from a private meeting room at the hotel, where he was holding court as the party got underway at the nearby Paradise Club. Later in the evening, rapper Lil Yachty performed a surprise two-song set.

“Once I started learning more about Yves Saint Laurent, the man, what a rebel he was and how he broke labels – and also how he delved into his own psyche and how it was about his relationship with himself and trying to understand himself, I started to be more and more more inspired by him as an individual,” Butler added. p> Related Articles

The actor's relationship with perfume is new, but the scent evokes memories of his childhood in Orange County.

"One of the key notes and one of the first things they incorporated into the perfume was the smell of orange blossoms," Butler said. "And that was the first thing that came to my mind when I smelled it, because that was my childhood. I had this orange tree in my garden, and when the tree was blooming, my mother and I would go and pick oranges. I have very vivid memories of that time, so that's really the main memory that comes to mind."

Butler was staying in town to see the art show of a friend: Ed Ruscha, whose retrospective “Now Then” opens to the public at MoMA on Sunday. "We'll have lunch with him and then go," Butler said.