Perfume shopping in New York: Scent of the Big Apple

By Catherine Du Peloux Menage
Updated September 30 2014 - 4:18pm, first published September 28 2014 - 12:15am
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
Twisted Lily: Fragrance Boutique & Apothecary. Photo: none
Twisted Lily: Fragrance Boutique & Apothecary. Photo: none
New York perfumistas are wearing Diptyque and not French. Photo: none
New York perfumistas are wearing Diptyque and not French. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none
West Village has Aedes de Venustas which stocks the best international niche brands for up-market perfume, skincare and scented candles. Photo: none

New Yorkers have always been perfume lovers. The love affair started with French fragrance. Lubin conquered the New World in the 1830s and it was for Jean Patou's American clients that the couturier created Joy in 1930. (The Great Depression made it harder to afford the Atlantic crossing to  buy the latest Paris fashions.) Estee Lauder's launch in 1953 of Youth Dew, one of the first American perfumes, was also the launch of US fragrance industry and it hasn't looked back. Now Estee's granddaughter has launched her new brand Aerin. Today the city is home to the best perfumers – roll over Paris and Grasse. Be it celebrity scents (Elizabeth Arden's 1987 Passion started the trend), blockbuster successes from Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs or Tom Ford, niche brands like Le Labo, Odin NY, Bond No 9 and By Kilian, more specialised natural and indie scent brands such as Strange Invisible Perfumes or DS and Durga, New York does it all.

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