Le Labo opened their first London standalone shop very quietly, in late February 2010. They were already in London, of course, via their counter in Liberty — about as prestigious as it gets in the central London department store arena. Now they’ve chosen an equally upmarket neighbourhood for their first London shop.
Devonshire Street links Harley Street with Marylebone High Street (it’s pronounced ‘Marly-bun’, in case you wondered). This is an area of Georgian terraces and charming little mews, as well as being the epicentre of private medicine in the UK. Marylebone High Street is one of those chic, understated shopping areas where the charity shop sells Prada and you’re likely to vaguely recognize the person on the next table if you pop in for a lunchtime bite. (A friend of mine trailed after a familiar figure one day; it was Ronnie Wood.)
The Le Labo shop is actually just round the corner from Marylebone High Street…
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Posted by Robin
on
23 February 2010
Anne McClain, a graduate of the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, will be holding introductory perfume classes at Le Labo in Nolita the first Monday of every month…
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Posted by Robin
on
16 December 2009
“It’s true, some people have a very, very sensitive sense of smell, a natural way of identifying scents,” Penot says—but even some world-renowned perfumers do not fall into that category. “I’m not naming names,” he laughs. “I know some perfumers who are very bad at recognizing ingredients in a perfume—really bad. But they’re amazing artists doing beautiful work.”
— Fabrice Penot of Le Labo, quoted in The Scent Detective: How to Sniff Out Fragrances at Elle magazine.
Posted by Erin
on
27 November 2009
My guess is that most obsessive perfume samplers have the equivalent of Robin’s purgatory basket. As someone who suffers from chronic indecision, I have a large collection of scents I just can’t decide whether I like or not, separated into a series of elegant “snack-sized” plastic freezer bags. Every couple of months I retrieve all of these baggies and place them on my bed, along with two larger plastic tubs, which house, respectively, fragrances in the current rotation (scents in good standing) and samples that I see every couple of months when I perform this ritual (the tub of no return). I spread the contents of the purgatory bags over my duvet and begin picking through the vials and atomizers, sorting them into piles: judgement rendered, cult favorites that need one more try, scents that have somehow eluded skin-testing. Like Robin, I always end up with a pile of scents that stubbornly resist categorization and tubbing. As my spouse looks on with bafflement and mild disapproval, I return these fragrances to the twilight, limbo land of the snack bag.
The firmer, sterner souls among you probably agree with my husband. With multiple new fragrances being launched every single day, why does anyone bother trying to puzzle out their complicated relationship with one? Well, my problem is that I often prefer the interesting to the simply likable…
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Tokyo is not a perfume-mad city. You won’t catch whiffs of elusive scents as you go travel the Metro system; in the department stores you’ll struggle to find more than the mainstream Chanels and Guerlains, with a small corner set aside for a selection of other, well-known scents.
Given Tokyo’s lack of enthusiasm for fragrance, Le Labo’s decision to open a boutique seems brave to the point of madness. However, they’re hoping to persuade the Japanese that scent can be fascinating, and the area they’ve chosen for their store — Daikanyama — is one of the most chic and boho areas of the city. It’s a place full of small, uber-trendy shops and restaurants, the kind of place you’d find Sienna Miller shopping for clothes. In the south-western part of the city, it’s the place where many foreign embassies are located…
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