Paris Retail Safari: Follow Your Nose
PARIS — Fragrance is having a real moment these days, especially in Paris, where new retail concepts selling scent abound. Here is a look at what some of the newest are.
Perfumer H
More from WWD
British perfumer Lyn Harris opened the first boutique in France for her eight-year-old brand Perfumer H in Paris’ Marais district in April.
Harris is one of Britain’s few master perfumers, having trained at Robertet in Grasse, France.
Her new shop’s design features wood, metal and glass, with the materials chosen to channel the brand’s message of simplicity. Giving color to the shop are the perfume bottles and candle holders, which are hand-blown and engraved by Michael Ruh.
Perfumer H’s 50 personal fragrances and 25 home fragrances line oak shelving. (Each product is refillable.) On display, too, are other artisanal olfactive creations, such as soap from Lancashire in the U.K., hand-rolled incense from Kyoto and handpicked potpourri from the Balkans.
Harris cherrypicked culinary elements, such as olive oil from the Valdueza Estate in western Spain.
Perfumer H, 64 Rue Vieille du Temple, 75004
Henry Jacques
Bryon/Courtesy of Henry Jacques
In late May, independent fragrance label Henry Jacques inaugurated its first Paris flagship. Located in a building on Avenue Montaigne, it has a small garden out front.
Founded in 1975, in the southern French city of Draguignan, near the perfume capital of Grasse, the brand made its mark by offering made-to-measure scents. Fifty of these were selected as the bedrock of Henry Jacques’ retail offering, which is sold only through its own stores.
Those take pride of place at the bottom of the boutique’s steps, set in lit niches carved into the wall. QR codes lead to discovering an explanatory poem about each scent. A few steps sideways lead to a completely different universe — a living space lined with wood bookshelves and paneled doors.
Ancient books and paintings cohabit with exotic-skin fragrance cases and plush seating. The idea behind these spaces was to recreate a house mixed with memories.
Henry Jacques, 2 Avenue Montaigne, 75008
Initio Parfums Privés
Courtesy of Initio Parfums Privés
Initio Parfums Privés’ first flagship debuted in May. Designed by the Malherbe Paris agency, its decor is based around the concept of a speakeasy, or private club.
Initio, a unisex brand, was introduced in 2015.
Its Paris boutique has a bar of fragrances, as well as a dedicated area where people can discover the perfumes in an intimate environment. Decoration details, in brass, concrete, marble, glass and felt, hark back to the ’30s.
The retail concept will ultimately be used in different environments, such as in department stores and shops-in-shop.
Today, Initio Parfums Privés has five fragrance collections — Carnal Blends, Absolutes, Magnetic Blends, Black Gold Project and Hedonist — with 18 units in all.
Initio Parfums Privés, 320 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001
Kilian Paris
Courtesy of Andrieu Géraldine/Kilian Paris
Eight years after opening his first boutique, on Paris’ tony Rue Cambon, Kilian Hennessy has overhauled the location with an Art Deco flair. Central to this place, which was officially inaugurated in May, is the “Kilian Bar” (nodding to Hennessy’s family history seeped in the cognac business).
The bar has a Carrara marble counter and black oak structure with hints of brushed bronze medallions. Here, one can discover Kilian Paris olfactive creations, which fall into five fragrance families — The Liquors, The Fresh, The Narcotics, The Cellars and The Smokes.
A gift bar is found in a private lounge across from which is a library of objects and books close to Hennessy himself. The makeup station is for people to discover the scented lipsticks found in Le Rouge Parfum collection.
Kilian Paris, 20 Rue Cambon, 75001
— with contributions from Lily Templeton
FOR MORE, SEE:
MCM Launches MCM Ultra Fragrance
John Richmond Introduces Unknown Pleasures Fragrances
Frédéric Malle Hosting Fragrance Exhibition in Paris
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
