Not that Paris is in shortage of any perfumes stores. On the contrary. There are so many. It seems that every other store, including clothing stores, home decor stores and even patisseries, are having their own line of perfumes.
In Rome act like Romans do and in Paris get perfumed as Parisians. Right?
As much as Paris is packed with perfumes stores, there is always a room for one more; Jovoy Paris, which was opened in Paris at the end of March and focuses on rare, exclusive and limited edition perfumes.
The man who stands behind Jovoy Paris, is the charming perfumer, François Henin, who started his way in Vietnam. His mission was to explore the natural olfactive riches of Vietnam and to set up a pilot distillation factory on the Chinese border. He traveled through Asia for four years, selling flavors, fragrances and raw materials to local businesses. On 2010 he returned to Paris with a project in mind: to acquire a forgotten perfume house in order to present beautiful, rare and limited edition fragrances. That was the first Jovoy perfumery he opened in Paris. The success was immediate and the Parisian women ran to the store. After all, who doesn’t want to smell a bit different than others?
It happened that I visited the new Jovoy’s location in rue de Castiglione the day of its grand opening and lucky me, the charming François Henin himself was walking around, explaining about Jovoy’s concept and told me some stories and anecdotes behind some of the perfumes. ‘Rare perfumes are usually small houses run by a perfumer, who is committed to using raw materials that are noble, natural and sometimes exclusive. They don’t have high sales targets but they resonate with consumers who really know and love perfumes, as well as those who are quite disappointed with the ‘muse’- oriented fragrances, that are the product of a too-wide distribution’
Aside from the wide selection, which is both original and quality-minded, I love the way Jovoy features its perfumes. Whereas in traditional shops the saleswoman is spraying the perfume on a smelling paper (and what you smell is actually the alcohol that ‘burns’ the nose), Jovoy uses glass domes to cover the little brown tester bottles, in order to capture the perfume’s true scent. It is actually allowing the customers to get a better idea of the fragrance’s real scent without the inconveniences of the alcohol.
But beside the little domes, the colorful perfumes bottles and obviously, the heavenly scents, I also love the way the new space is designed; The red walls, the warm colored shelves in the middle of the store, where costumers could pass both sides and the vintage touch of some of the displayed tables, gave Jovoy a very Parisian chic, yet conceptual high-class store.
Among the rare perfumes that can be found are; Amouage, Andy Tauer, Heeley, Humiecki and Graef, Masaki Matsushhima, Undergreen, Puro, Xerjoff and so many others I’ve never heard off.
Next time you are in Paris, include Jovoy store in your schedule. definitely a great way to experience Paris.
Jovoy Paris
4, Rue de Castiglione, 75001 Paris
www.jovoyparis.com
There are so many temptations in Paris…food-wise.
The French are well known for their delicate baguettes, the rich-with-butter croissants and for the sweet and colorful macaroons. The macaroons or in french ‘le macaron’, are small round meringue like cookies, made of sugar and eggs, stuffed with light cream or crushed almond cream. There are endless bakeries in Paris and so many patisseries that sell and serve macaroons but my favorite one was Ladurée, which became a prestigious brand name for macaroons. The history of the Ladurée brand goes back to 1862, when Louis Ernest Laduree, a miller from the southwest of France opened a bakery at 16 Rue Royale in Paris. At the same time, the area around the Madeleine was gradually becoming a central, cultural and prestigious thanks to the Garnier Opera’s developments. Ernest Ladurée’s wife, Jeanne Souchard, who was the daughter of a well-known hotelier, came up with the idea of combining a Literary salon for women with a Parisian café and pastry shop. The result was the first tea salons in town and “salon de thé” which had a definite advantage over other cafés, as these kinds of salons permitted ladies to gather in freedom. Jeanne Souchard succeeded in combining the turn-of-the-century trend to modernism. The tea room was enlarged in 1930 by a family member of Louis Ernest Ladurée, who gradually made it into a ‘Maison’ and a well known Parisian institution. In 1993 the Ladurée brand was bought by the Holder Group, which extended the business and opened a new prestigious Ladurée (both a restaurant and tea room) on the Champs-Elysées. The mission of the Holder Group was to bring back the great classics, which have contributed to the reputation of this ‘salon de thé’, as well as create an environment for gastronomic creativity in Paris. With time, Ladurée became a tea salon, pastry shop and extended its products to other colorful desserts, home fragrances, candles, stationary products, all are painted in pastel colors as of the macaroons. My most visited Ladurée was the one on 21 Rue Boneparte, a cute cornered patisserie with a colorful magical and tempting gift shop next door.
Just in time for Spring Season, the Fashion Magazine Marie Claire ITALIA is featuring my ongoing photography project ‘Intimacy under the Wires’. See the latest April Spring Issue.
For me, it is just another reason to go back to Italy and revisit….
I migliori panni della nostra vita
Lenzuola che sventolano, calzini spaiati, tovaglie colorate, le vite degli altri appese ai fili dei balconi. Sono quelle che Sivan Askayo, fotografa 36enne israeliana trapiantata a Manhattan, ama immortalare nei suoi viaggi, da Firenze fino a Tokyo. “Ero tornata dopo tanto tempo a Jaffa e mentre aspettavo un amico in un vicolo, ho alzato gli occhi. Una donna stendeva il bucato al sole: una scena che, vivendo a New York, avevo dimenticato”. Il suo progetto (in corso) Intimacy Under The Wires, racconta l’intimità esibita in città, sotto gli occhi di tutti.
6:00 in the morning: I get up, drink my morning coffee while checking my emails. Recharging both my batteries (another cup of coffee) and the camera’s and heading out to the Gym. I need to have at least one hour work out, otherwise I really feel bad walking among all those models/fashion editors/twiggy fashionistas. Thank God my Gym is only one block away from Lincoln Center. I can make it on time to the ‘before’ of Tory Burch’s Fashion show.
.
8:30 am: I am in Starbucks the corner of 63rd and Broadway. i think this branch might be the busiest in the city this morning. A long line of ‘fashionably-dressed -caffeine-addicted’ people holding their iPads/Camera/Hand bags I wouldn’t mind adopting.
Having some small talks, getting some of yesterday’s reviews and off to Lincoln Center Plaza. Some people at the entrance giving away the ‘Daily Fashion Front Row’ and some other fashion magazines. Who has time to read, anyway?
.
.
Tori’s fashion show is at 9 am at the Alice Tully Hall on 65th street. It probably started already and I missed the people who were getting in. It’s the first show of the day and people are more relaxed. That will change within an hour or so. Guaranteed.
9:15 am: I walk back to Lincoln Center’s plaza, on time to catch the J.Crew fashion show at 9:30 am. My God! So much color! Then I see a glittery green skirt walking towards me. One of the photographers tells me it is Kelly Killoren from Real Housewives of New York City. I don’t really care. All I see is that glittery sequined green skirt with a matching green bag.
At 9:30 am all the late comers start racing towards the fashion hall. On heels!
The J. Crew show is till 10:30 but 10:00 am is the Badgley Mischka show. Another party of people is coming while the J. Crew crowd is getting out for a cigarette break and to have their pictures taken.
All of a sudden I notice a group of tall people and among them a familiar blonde figure. But who is she for God’s sake? I must admit that for a second I thought it was Georgina May Jagger, the daughter of Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger, but one of the photographers next to me whisperes in my ear ‘It’s Lara Stone, can’t you tell?’. They are all so look alike.
Around 10:30 more people are coming out of the J. Crew show and I can catch some more color splashes with my camera. So beautiful.
Note to self: Check out the J.Crew catalogue I got in the mail and mark some new items to buy. A must!
Then I spot Maria Duenas Jacobs, the Accessories editor at Glamour magazine. And she is wearing jeans. But she is so beautiful, so it is forgiven
Talking about colors, then out of the Mercedes Benz halls I could spot a fuchsia coat walking on two skinny legs and all photographers are running toward it. Og my God, it is Anna Dello Russo. I decide to also run after this coat with its two skinny legs and photograph Anna. And she is so slim….and she is so happy to be photographed with well, almost everyone by everyone. Some girl from a European TV network asks her what was her favorite show and the fuchsia coat said it was very impressed by Prabal Gurung‘s latest collection.
Then the fuchsia coat hurries to the next show, and we , the photographers, take advantage of the brief break in between the shows to take more pictures of the people outside.
Disclosure: As we, the photographers, want to shoot, the people who come to the shows want to be photographed. They wear their best clothes (and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are hiring a stylist just for this day) and they pose in front of our cameras, like, if not as, some of the professional models in the shows. Every one wants to find himself/herself the next day on one of the fashion blogs or websites. Speaking of which, I just recognized Scott Schuman, who is The Sartorilaist. Oy, I never thought he is so short and compact.
So if he is here, I thought to myself, then his French girlfriend, Garance Dore, or whatever her name is, should be here as well. And indeed, few feet away I saw Garance taking pictures of some girl for her blog. I’m a bit disappointed by what she is wearing, no need to say more. One can sense the excitement in the crowd when Scott and Garance are around. Who doesn’t want to find himself at the Sartorialist as a good dresser?
Meanwhile I see Katie Couric and then Taylor Tomasi Hill the fashion editor of Marie Claire, wearing high heel sandals to die and kill for. Perfection!
11:00 am: I’m having another coffee break at Starbucks, same place. same people. Who need caffeine as well. Everyone with their iPads, iPhone, Blackberries, and I can already imagine the graph of Twitter sky rocking. After my coffee break, I decide to change my location and head down to Bryant Park. If I time it right, I might get there on time when people are leaving Vera Wang’s.
13:00 pm: So if I am already at the park, I should go and say hi to a friend of mine who is a make up artist at one of the shows. No way I can get an entrance to behind the scenes so my friend is coming outside, we grab lunch, breath some ‘normal’ air and I head downtown to Chelsea. A friend who is having a gallery there is renting it out for a fashion display and invited me over.
15:00 pm: I am meeting with my Amsterdam friend, Elyne, She has decided to focus on photographing mostly shoes. While waiting to get in the Chelsea gallery, I show her my shoe collection I got on my camera. The hand bags collection, I should show her later.
The Chelsea gallery display was packed with a different type of crowd than the one in Lincoln Center. The Chelseas are more daring, less trendy than the Upper West Siders. The Fashion show was of Viktor Luna, a Mexican-born designer, who grew up in Los Angeles and works in New York and his style is more of Punk Rock and Pulse. Except for one pair of pants I could see myself wearing, the rest of his clothes were not really my style.
I looked at the models who were looking at us. None of them moved. Well, maybe only one moved, or someone moved her, I don’t know. They were standing there. Frozen.
I got bored of looking at people who are looking back at me, so I’ve decided to take some pictures of the audience. At least the audience was more ‘alive’ and interesting. Then I notice two drag Queens. Was Pricilla Queen of the Desert making a comeback?
It took me twenty minutes to view the show to decide to take a taxi uptown back to Lincoln Center, to make it on time to my favorite, Diane von Furstenberg. Another round of shoots to catch more of the people who come late. Elisa Sednaoui, the model who DVF hosted on the first fashion week was fashionably late. She was wearing all Pink. Well, she can do it.
17:00 pm: I am going home to edit some of my shots, recharge the batteries (and the camera’s as well), changing clothes and off to the Meat Packing area.
20:00 pm: The Meat Packing District is packed. The French Purple magazine is giving a party at the Standard. Among the party guests I could spot some fashion bloggers, fashion assistants, fashion wanna bees and of course, fashion victims.
22:00 pm: I’m running out of subjects for small talks. I’m getting bored. I’m going back home.
Tomorrow is another day.
Living only 5 minutes walk from Harajuku train station, and luckily only 4 minutes away from Starbucks. Walking back and forth along Omotesando every day and finding some really cute boutiques in the alleys near by. Prada building in Aoyama, Comme des Garcons near by and Tod’s building by Toyo Ito. 2 Silver light coats, 2 grey heat-tech undershirts in Uniqlo Shibuya. The massive crowds in Shibuya and miraculously not getting lost in Shibuya train station. Special Tea seminar in Ippodo Tea place in Ginza. Not understanding a word, but enjoying myself to the fullest. Meeting a friend at the Meiji Jingu Harajuku Shrine, just to realize there is a religious ceremony going on. Throwing few coins to ask for a good luck, writing my wishes on a special paper and buying two lucky charms. Sushi for breakfast, Soba noodle soup for Dinner, snacking mochi all the time. Visiting a store for Kimonos only, Window shopping in Ginza. Stationary made of Japanese special paper after looking for the certain store for hours. Harajuku Girls, Harajuku Girls Malls, Harajuku Girls Culture. A must! Having a behind the scenes and a private tour at HP France company; The trendiest clothing company in Tokyo. Meeting new people and turning them into friends. Fish soup, sticky rice, mint chocolate and sweet crepes. Looking up all the time just to be amazed by the beautiful architecture. JR line, Shinjuku station, Quico boutique and tons of beauty salons. Walking in a city of 13 million people and experiencing serendipity quite often. Sleeping only 4 hours a night, just because there is so much to see. Feel like in the movie ‘Lost in Translation’ so many times during the day but still, always finding my way back. Seeing so many places, so many people and squeezing so many great experiences and surprises into 72 hours….Priceless!
