Ormonde Jayne fans will be pleased to know that there’s a new standalone Ormonde Jayne shop in Chelsea, just off Sloane Square. The new shop is much bigger than the tiny space in the Royal Arcade, which means that more goodies are on display, rather than tucked away in drawers.
The new flagship store, swimming beautifully in smoked mirror glass, offers the chance to sit down and have your Perfume Portrait created for you…
Knows Perfume, in the West Seattle Junction neighborhood, has one of the most eclectic selections of perfumes and home fragrance products in Seattle (and Seattle isn’t a slouch in the perfume department these days). Owner Christen Cottam, perfume lover, raconteuse, former roller derby skater known as “Flirtation Device,” and ex-biotech rep, opened Knows Perfume last summer.
The high-ceilinged store, with dark wood floors, natural (non-aggressive) lighting, and a large comfortable sofa, provides a calm/relaxed atmosphere for sampling fragrances. Cottam would not be unhappy if you decided to stay the afternoon and try every fragrance in the shop; there is no hyper, hard-sell atmosphere at Knows Perfume…
Over the last year or so, L’Artisan Parfumeur have been gradually closing down their standalone stores in London. There are no longer stores in Marylebone High Street or Royal Exchange, and the third store in Cale Street will soon go too, I learned. Presumably this is linked to the fact that L’Artisan is now stocked by SpaceNK, which gives them a broader distribution without the overhead of London premises.
However, there is still one L’Artisan shop still in London for now — the newish store in Covent Garden. It’s in the space left vacant by the demise of B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful, or rather in the upper half of that space — the space is shared with another business that gets the intriguing caverned cellar downstairs…
Amouage perfumes have been available in London for several years, via small counters in Harrods and Selfridges. Fab as these stores are, they’re crowded and busy — not the best environment to take in the finer points of what are pretty darn expensive perfumes.
It’s therefore not surprising that Amouage has opened its own standalone boutique, and equally unshocking that the new shop is in the swanky shopping area that Annick Goutal chose for its London flagship.
(There’s a hint of lèse-majesté in the fact that the block housing Amouage is currently shrouded in scaffolding, so that the new shop peeps out between padded poles. It doesn’t make for the best photo-opportunity.)
The shop’s interior, consisting of two spacious rooms, offers a bright and serene environment for appreciating the scents…
Bond no. 9’s flagship boutique, at the company’s namesake address, is located on a cobble-stoned street with historic cast-iron architecture. Walking into the boutique, you may be impressed by its sheer size; in this city where real estate is an obsession, charted inch by costly inch, Bond occupies the entire first floor of the building.
Everywhere you turn in this shop, there is something colorful or glittering to see. Amphora-like dramming units are displayed on mannequin-shaped stands; refillable atomizers are arranged in the slots of a votive-candle stand salvaged from some unknown church. In addition to the more than thirty New York-inspired fragrances (most of which are Eau de Parfum), you can cast your eye (and nose) over scented body creams, candles, soaps, and limited edition bottles encrusted with Swarovski crystals…