The indie fragrance boom of recent years hasn’t only fueled a spate of new brands — but new retailers, too.
From New York to Paris to Milan and beyond, WWD Weekend rounds up five must-visit global hot spots bringing niche fragrances further into brick-and-mortar retail.
1. Stéle
339 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11211
Williamsburg’s latest niche fragrance spot, Stéle.
courtesy
If somebody who loves you very much went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and all they got you was a fragrance from Stéle — well, you’d probably be quite pleased.
Options abound at the 600-square-foot store, whose assortment of niche fragrances ranges from Jouaissance’s erotic novel-inspired scents, to Mabelle O’Rama’s floral-infused odes to her motherland, Lebanon, to China’s Aromag, best known for its Wild Garlic Eau de Parfum.
“We like to say our brands have a soul,” says interior-designer-turned-fragrance-connoisseur Jake Levy, who opened the shop in April alongside his partner, Matt Belanger. “We have a different community than most — Gen Z is always down for new experiences, and that’s definitely who we’ve attracted.”
The store, which carries more than 300 fragrances priced between $95 to $500, also offers bookable scent sessions for groups or duos looking to receive personalized recommendations and learn about perfumery. “I like to say we’re like the fragrance comic shop, in a way — it’s about more than just buy, buy, buy,” says Levy.
Other fragrances stocked at the store — which will have a Manhattan sister location come 2025 — include Hima Jomo’s Pashm Eau de Parfum, inspired by the warmth of a pashmina worn while adventuring in Kashmir’s mountains, and Brooklyn’s own equestrian-inspired Maison D’Etto — or as Levy puts it, “our horse girl brand.”
“Everyone asks us how we find these brands,” says Levy, who routinely engages with fellow fragrance lovers, artisans, creators and even customers about what’s next up in fragrance. “Our goal has been not to find what sells, but what we love, and in turn, we sell everything. We want real-deal, authentic brands — we don’t want the weak sauce.” – Noor Lobad
2. Campomarzio70
Via Alessandro Manzoni, 44, Milan
Campomarzio70’s flagship in Milan.
Photo by Francasco Gau / Courtesy of Campomarzio79
Campomarzio70 has a new jewel in its crown, a Milan flagship opened this fall at Via Alessandro Manzoni, 44, which introduced an even more experiential approach by the beauty retailer.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary as exclusive distributor of artisanal fragrances and niche brands in Italy under the Campomarzio70 banner, the new location is intended to elevate the shopping experience with a concept merging art showcases on the ground floor; a cozy lounge, and the Essential Cocktail Bar in the basement, as well as a schedule of in-store events and workshops.
The retailer’s assortment — which encompasses brands such as Memo Paris, Ex Nihilo, D’Orsay, Matière Première and Floraïku, to name a few — also includes design pieces by the likes of L’Objet and Fornasetti. The latter marked its 10-year collaboration with Campomarzio70 — which is the exclusive distributor of the brand’s fragrances in Italy — by creating a bespoke collection of furniture and homeware hand-painted with motifs of owls, apples and leaves. These are sold exclusively at the store.
“Changing our retail concept has been a challenge,” says Campomarzio70’s chief executive officer Valentino Di Liello, citing, for example, the idea of not having any transaction on the ground floor and instead installing “a gallery dedicated to the art of perfumery.” Overall, he teased the location will act as a test since the retailer — which last year generated 20 million euros in sales — is considering exporting the concept internationally. — Sandra Salibian
3. Nose
20 Rue Bachaumont, 75002 Paris
Paris-based Nose.
Photo Courtesy of Nose
Nose in central Paris curates more than 800 perfumes and 1,500 references, including home fragrance, skin care and makeup from more than 90 niche brands.
In perfumes, Nose stocks labels such as Creed, Santa Maria Novella, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, Kilian, Parfums de Marly, Ex Nihilo, Nishane, Matière Première, BDK Parfums, Parfumeur H, Floraïku, Comme des Garçons and Marc-Antoine Barrois.
“The Bazaar” area contains brands cherrypicked by the Nose community of journalists, perfumers and other fragrance fans. Here, there are the likes of Oddity, Parfumerie Particulière, Neandertal and Goldfield & Banks. Recent introductions to the store include Atelier des Ors, Mad et Len and Thameen.
Nose, which spans 1,885 square feet and is located at 20 Rue Bachaumont in the 3rd arrondissement, has at its entry a perfume organ. Begun in 2012 as a hybrid online-brick-and-mortar concept, the shop specializes in personalized fragrance diagnosis generated with a digital tool from a database of more than 10,000 scents spanning from the 18th century until today. It produces olfactive portraits for people, as well as recommendations of five scents that can be used as a starting point in making a perfume selection.
Nose was cofounded by beauty professionals, including Nicolas Cloutier, Mark Buxton, Romano Ricci and Silvio Levi. — Jennifer Weil
4. To Summer
23 Guozijian Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
To Summer’s Beijing flagship.
Photo by Liu Xinghao / Courtesy of To Summer
Chinese scent-maker To Summer debuted its Beijing flagship in July 2022. The 4,555-square-foot, two-story boutique found at 23 Guozijian Street had been a courtyard built in the Qing Dynasty that took one year to restore. The design idea was to maintain the essence of the original majestic quadrangle courtyard while injecting new life into it, and where possible the original wooden elements were preserved. A well was unearthed in the courtyard while renovations were underway.
To Summer has perfumes, home aromas and seasonal special editions. The Eastern Philosophy collection counts four scents; the Eastern Essence line has six, while the Eastern Literature line is made up of five. There are also home fragrances that include a diffuser series.
“We feature a collection called the Chinese Sweet Series, inspired by nostalgic local flavors and transformed into home aroma scents,” says Shen Li, a cofounder of To Summer. “Within this collection, we have a scent called Hawthorn, inspired by Beijing’s winter memory of walking through snow-covered hutongs, eating sugar-coated hawthorn sticks.”
To Summer pairs its scent with traditional Eastern handicrafts, including Jingdezhen potters and Boshan glass makers. — Jennifer Weil
5. Commodity
113 Crosby Street, New York, N.Y. 10012
Commodity’s New York flagship.
courtesy
Europerfumes founder and president Vicken Arslanian knew he wanted to buy niche fragrance brand Commodity out of bankruptcy the moment he heard it was shuttering after its first go-around in 2019.
“It was kind of like that game you play in your head when you live in a city and walk past a certain building every day on your walk to work and think, ‘I’d love to have an apartment in that building one day’ — and then one actually opens up,” says Arslanian, a longtime player in niche fragrance who distributes brands including Juliette Has a Gun, Amouage and more via Europerfumes.
He took the reins that summer, taking time to rebuild Commodity during the COVID-19 pandemic before relaunching in 2021 direct-to-consumer, and re-entering Sephora a year later. This fall, he opened the brand’s first brick-and-mortar store in SoHo, New York, as a means for consumers to more intimately engage with the brand and its threefold “scent space” system.
“We did away with the eau de toilette, eau de parfum terminology of the fragrance industry and have three of what we call ‘scent spaces’ — Expressive, Personal and Bold,” says Arslanian, adding that all of the brand’s fragrances, which cost $150 for a 100-ml. bottle, come in each variety.
The scent spaces indicate different levels of projection (Expressive being the least intense of the three, while Bold is the most), while also entailing slight adjustments to the composition. “For a Bold iteration, we’ll take the Expressive and add, for instance, labdanum and resin and other notes to give it more depth and strength,” says Arslanian.
Commodity’s hero fragrance is Milk, which accounts for about 60 percent of sales and features marshmallow and tonka bean notes, while Gold and Paper are other favorites (one-word names are another one of the brand’s “things”).
“Our store is designed to be similar to our exploration kit — you can either start in the middle and smell every fragrance if you don’t know your Scent Space, or you choose the space you like and move left or right from there,” says Arslanian. — Noor Lobad
