BIG APPLE BUSINESS: Bond No. 9
BOND No. 9: FINALLY, MAKING SCENTS OF NEW YORK
Perfumery has always been about head-turning. Now, perfumes are about to be turned on their head. For the first time in fragrance history, a major, full-blown fragrance collection is to be launched as an homage to a great city which is what we write about all the time on Whom You Know. The name of this fragrance collection is Bond No. 9 (which is also the address of its headquarters boutique at 9 Bond Street, in Noho). The city it celebrates is none other than--could be no other than--New York.
The Bond No. 9 start-up collection–36 women’s, men’s, and unisex eaux de parfum--has a dual mission: To restore artistry to perfumery, and to mark every New York neighborhood with a scent of its own. Each fragrance represents a specific downtown, midtown, or uptown locale or a city-wide sensibility. With new introductions in the coming seasons, Bond No. 9 will infuse the island of Manhattan with scents.
While each Bond No. 9 fragrance is unique, all 36 share something in common with the city in which they were created: They have an edge. From the most audacious (and several are very audacious) to the wittiest and most whimsical, they all convey a courage, a gutsiness, that captures (as in a genie’s bottle) the uncompromising spirit of this grand-scale, fast-paced, hard-working, hard-living kaleidoscopic city. They’ve got a kick–a savvy assurance that says, Yes ... this is the place to be ... this is the scent to wear.
Bond No. 9 is what happens when a French perfume expert, Laurice Rahmé, for 25 years a loving resident of New York, turns her uncompromising, opinionated nose to her adopted city. She couldn’t help but give New York its own array of scents. Steeped in the art of 20th century Paris perfumery (the juice ... the bottle ... the packaging ... the pitch), Rahmé has sniffed out the city, and developed a series of scents as tone-poems, that smell of the dreams, the longings, the mystique, the energy and spirit of her adopted home–the brave and bold premier metropolis of the 21st century. Whom You Know looks forward to featuring her as a Mover and Shaker!
Going against the grain of most commercial fragrances, Bond No. 9 restores the grand art of perfume blending, using only high, 18 - 22 percent concentrations of pure eaux de parfums–the longlasting concentrations of the legendary vintage scents of the 1920s and 1930s. What’s more, each fragrance has been blended in New York, by hand-picked French perfumers who, like Rahmé, have gravitated here to what has become the world capital of beauty and fragrance.
Circa 2009, New York is in much the same position as fin de siecle Paris. It has a similar excitement and charisma, a similar electric pace, a sense that it’s come of age. Like Paris a hundred years ago, New York is the teeming metropolis the whole world watches, the center of taste-making and trend-setting, endlessly reinventing itself, forever remaking the rules.
In that spirit, Rahmé calls her Bond No. 9 collection la parfumerie autrement (alternative perfumery), or laissez faire perfumery–personal choice perfumery–for this city that revels in a multitude of choices. Even down to the details, Bond No. 9 breaks all the taboos.
o Each fragrance is presented not in cellophane-wrapped packages, but in generous glass amphoras held by Bond No. 9's own curvaceous, larger-than-life, custom-made mannequins (we call them the Anti-Spritzers), designed by the upcoming New York artist Ron Rowe.
o With the aid of scent strips, each fragrance is sampled directly from its own amphora.
o Then you choose the scent–or scents–you prefer. Recognizing that today’s consumer is well-educated about perfumes, they welcome her (or him) to mix her (or his) own blend.
o Next, you select a flacon. The choices include exquisite and witty vintage or art bottles in a wide variety of shapes, including figurals, fans, and beehives ($80 - $200), contemporary art bottles from Europe ($60 - $180), or their two-ounce basic spray flacon with a gilt honeycomb cap ($20 - $28). You can also choose a mesh-covered atomizer pump, available in a wide variety of colors ($40 - $70). Whichever bottle you select, it’s a one-time purchase. All their bottles, while decidedly upscale, are ecologically sound and refillable. And when you return, the mannequins (unlike most New Yorkers) will be waiting patiently to give you a refill.
Then you do the pouring ... as little as one ounce, or as much as you like. Your flacon is then weighed and priced accordingly. (All Bond No. 9 fragrances cost $40- $45 per ounce). They call this system parfums à l’ ounce.
Whom You Know and Peachy Deegan look forward to reviewing all of the Manhattan scents!!! What could be better that that for Whom You Know?!
