This season, Paris Fashion Week was once again second to none. As one of the big four, the City of Lights is where young designers seek fame and recognition, and it is also where major French luxury powerhouses, like Lvmh and Kering, stage their most monumental shows. But what do you do in this fashion capital when fashion weeks are over? Paris is also the perfect place to be if you want to explore the art of perfumery at its best. We know it well around here. Istituto Marangoni Paris, which is set to launch perfumery and cosmetics management programmes this year, has already organised a one-off olfactory stroll for short course students. And they plan to organise more perfume journeys in Paris for their students in the coming months. Stay tuned!
Istituto Marangoni Paris, which is set to launch perfumery and cosmetics management courses, organised an olfactory stroll for short course students with journalist and beauty expert Silvia Manzoni
Considered one of the world’s major perfume capitals, Paris is home to the shops of the world’s greatest fragrance creators and most beautiful maisons de parfum, many of which were founded there. These places offer an entire universe of fragrances, culture, and lifestyle that expresses an art de vivre that is quintessentially French yet open to the world.
Share with us this five-step itinerary tracing famous perfumes, which can be a way to discover other less monumental but equally exciting aspects of the city.
Are you ready?
For our first walk, we have chosen the district around the Rue Saint Honoré between the Place Vendôme and Palais Royal. Over time, this elegant and vibrant Parisian street has been chosen as a hub for perfume creativity. The Colette concept store, now replaced by the Saint Laurent boutique, probably paved the way. However, the diverse mix of people who frequent the district may also explain its success: tourists (the Louvre is nearby) and many locals who work in the surrounding offices or come here to shop.
Our first stop is Jovoy on Rue Castiglione, the first and probably the finest niche multi-brand perfume store in the capital. Jovoy is named after the old perfume brand founded in 1923 that François Henin bought in 2010, after 80 years of oblivion. François, a globe-trotting lover of fine raw materials, decided to revive the brand and give it a new lease of life. After years of searching for scents in the depths of Vietnam’s forests, followed by a detour to Grasse, he made JOVOY Parfumeur Parisien an iconic label of contemporary niche perfumery and chose this name for his shop. Here, you can find 1800 scents and 130 brands in an atmosphere that blends different inspirations and encourages exploration with a spirit of freedom.
Jovoy contemporary niche perfumes in Rue Castiglione's perfume store in Paris
We reached our second stop after stopping in front of the Guerlain boutique on Rue Saint Honoré, whose flowery window displays never fail to impress. Ex Nihilo is a Parisian fragrance house founded in 2013 by a young trio – Sylvie Loday, Olivier Royère, and Benoît Verdier. The name Ex Nihilo comes from a Latin expression meaning “out of nothing”, applied to a new creation with no known reference. The brand offers an alternative to stereotyped luxury products and mass personalisation. The store’s blue-tinted space provides an opportunity to create customised fragrances using the Osmologue, a technological innovation that can add a personal touch to the Initiale and Babylone collections. Alternatively, you can choose from fragrances composed by great noses. The best seller is Fleur Narcotique, which bears the signature of Quentin Bisch.
One of the "not-ordinary" fragrances by Ex Nihilo you can find in the brand's store
We continued our olfactory stroll towards Port Royal but decided to detour onto Rue d’Alger. As we walked into the boutique of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, we were immediately drawn to a beautiful white carousel depicting Paris. The shop is small, and only a few people can enter at once, but it is a sensory delight, run by one of the greatest perfumers of our days. Francis Kurkdjian became famous at only 24 when he composed his first perfume, Jean Paul Gaultier’s ‘Le Male’ (1995), a game changer and an international bestseller. This creation’s success immediately propelled him to the court of the most esteemed perfumers. In 2009, he co-founded his perfume house, the Maison Francis Kurkdjian, with Marc Chaya. The fragrances range from fresh to opulent, always leaving room for free and innovative creativity. Today, Kurkdjian also works as the Artistic Director of Christian Dior Perfumes. He also made an essential contribution to creating the Jardin du Parfumeur at the Château de Versailles, of which he is the main sponsor. His bestsellers include the Aqua collection, which draws on the different facets of freshness and the iconic Baccarat Rouge 504, a social media star.
Francis Kurkdjian's bestsellers include the Aqua collection, which draws on the different facets of freshness and the iconic Baccarat Rouge 504, a social media star.
Back on the Rue Saint Honoré, we visited another Maison de Parfum that stands out for its unconventional creativity. Byredo was founded in Stockholm in 2006 by Ben Gorham with the ambition of translating memories and emotions into products and experiences. Byredo is reinventing the world of luxury through a new, more emotional approach. The store offers perfumes and candles along with displays of contemporary artworks by various artists. Byredo has collaborated with several brands, most famously with luxury streetwear pioneer Virgil Abloh, who founded Off-White and was men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton, and most recently with Susanne Kaufmann for two limited-edition hydrating fragrance oils. Bal d’Afrique, created by Jerôme Epinette, is the Byredo’s best-selling perfume.
The tour ended in a niche perfume boutique under the arches of Palais Royal, probably the first and definitely the most fascinating of its kind in the capital. This boutique offers all of Serge Lutens’ fragrances. Lutens created his first fragrance, ‘Féminité du bois’, for the Shiseido maison in 1992; with its woody notes, it was a departure from the female fragrances that were popular at the time. In 2000, he established his own perfume brand and set up his perfumery lab in Marrakech, Morocco, where he lives. His perfumes are often inspired by literary, artistic and cinematographic works that have influenced his career and fired his imagination, making them far from the standardised discourses that deliver perfume as a cooking recipe. In the past, Lutens was also the artistic director of make-up for Christian Dior. In 1980, he collaborated with Shiseido, allowing the Japanese cosmetics group to establish a powerful visual identity. The shop attracts visitors with Arabic-style decorations, all handmade by local artisans, but also references Antiquity and Japanese style. Serge Lutens’ bestsellers include La fille de Berlin, Ambre Sultan, Fleurs d’oranger, Vétiver oriental, and Féminité des Bois, ça va sans dire.
Some of the niche sophisticated perfume bottles discovered during the olfactory stroll in Paris.
Silvia Manzoni
Journalist and Beauty Expert