SNIFFETS: Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle Coming to a U.S. City Near You in 2012 + Perfumistas’ Paradise Draw

 

 Photo credit:  Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle 

According to Women’s Wear Daily  Frédéric Malle is getting  ready to expand his cult brand ‘s distribution in the U.S. after restricting the brand to Barneys New York flagships for a decade.

“What we are trying to do in this country is to open more stores of my own and to work with more people like Brian Bolke [owner of Forty Five Ten] and Barneys,” Malle said at Forty Five Ten, which began carrying some of his perfumes and candles in September. Aedes des Venustas in New York and Cuffs of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, (a purveyor of Hermes as well)  also added the line in the past year. Malle’s own store opened in 2009 on Madison Avenue in New York.

Malle is thinking about opening his own stores in Los Angeles and Florida, but he’s not sold on big cities. “I believe it’s nice to open where people don’t expect you to open,” he said. “For instance, I don’t have a store in London, which would be a natural, but I could have a store in East Hampton or in Marfa [Tex.]. Everybody thinks you have to open on Madison Avenue or Rodeo Drive, but…I’d rather pay less money, have less circulation, but be someplace a bit more interesting.”-via WWD

Music to many a perfumistas’ ears and noses.

Michelyn Camen, Editor-in Chief

 I  am offering two carded samples to one winner: Honorary Contributor's Michel Roudnistka Noir Epices and Edmond Roudnitska's Parfum de Therese, so please leave a comment about  this new direction and your city.  Draw closes Sunday  December 18, 2011

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26 comments

  • Zee Boudreaux says:

    Portrait of a lady! I live near a Barney’s so I’m not missing much but I totally get smelling before you buy it’s a luxury many folks outside of large cities aren’t privy to. Although getting too big is always a danger I trust he’ll do what’s right though he seems to run a good ship.

  • We have access to Frederic Malle at Barney’s San Francisco. I think it’s a shrewd business move on his part to set up shop in lesser known areas because these areas are not saturated in the perfume niche market. I also like the fact that he’s opening doors to the niche world that ppl outside big cities usually don’t have access to.

  • lynnsylvaine says:

    I am a bit skeptical. He is a very shrewd business man and I agree with Maddy D. The danger is over saturating the market, but like Kilian Hennessy and Bond No 9 he can pull it off. It is easy to talk about opening in small cities, but no one outside of large cities really heard of him. I wonder if he will open in Waco Texas. I would love to see Mr Malle goes to Texas. I like that you selected from your personal collection…father and son. How generous!Please enter me in the draw

  • He is so elegant and handsome, that’s a great photo. And living out here in the WalMart Wasteland, I would love to see a store in Indianapolis. Why not? Talk about an untapped market…….

    thanks as always for the draw opportunity!

  • I live near a Holt Renfrew, where he is carried in Canada — I didn’t realize he was so hard to sniff. Last year I was really excited about trying Une Rose. The HR SA was strangely absent, so I had a few minutes to examine everything at leisure, and to spritz Un Rose to my person mayhaps too liberally. Beautiful stuff, Malle’s creations, he’s a real artist.

  • I don’t live in a heavily populated area, so more choices doesn’t have to mean more supply in the market, but more opportunity to sell other merchandise. I’m located in NW Florida near Pensacola. The largest market for me would realistically be Atlanta, which is 6 hours away.

  • Cheesegan, I am close to Portland too (on the coast, actually, but Portland is my “big city”).
    In fact, Portland is not a huge city after all, and it has its own charm.
    Where else would you find people driving all around with bumperstickers “keep Portland weird”? OMG, a Malle store in Portland will be a dream come true. I’ll even organize a sniff in Portland, between the legendary House of Perfumes, a pretty good Nordstroms with a full Bond #9 line and a Malle boutique there will be plenty to do for a day of Northwestern sniffers!

    I’d love these samples. I’ve been to Barneys a couple of times and asked for them, but they were out of them, so I got some other Malle samples instead, but never these two.

  • scentual healing says:

    I would love to win these. I live near a big city in the midwest, but it is far from a Barney’s so I love the idea of opening things up. Just like Olga, I don’t have these two samples. The father and son connection make it more special

  • I was in Marfa,TX this past spring. Really fun, but I’m amazed and impressed that he mentioned this remote (but hip) place. I have a Barney’s near me, in Dallas. Am I the only person in the world who is terrified to go in there and try perfumes? I would love to smell these samples. Thanks!

  • This idea could work in his favor as well as the smaller cities, to draw tax dollars in. Not sure he would come to Utah but who knows. Rental space in the bigger cities can be huge, sounds like good business sense to go where overhead is not so high.
    I have been so wanting to try both of the draws so lets see if I have the luck..

  • living in Los Angeles, the lands of highs and lows…so I’m glad it wouldn’t be that Beverly Hills Ghetto. There’s always Melorose or Beverly Blvd but I wish he’s go to Silver Lake or Echo Park. Now that would be something!

  • live in Bulgaria here the few stores offering niche and lux scents are in the capital city.I live in the second largest city and I don’t have easy accsess because there not any niche perfumery here.Yesterday I was in the capital and I didn’t missed the chance to visit my favorite shops (none of them offers Mallle’s fragrances it’s a shame).So I think it’s great a idea to have shops in smaller cities.I would be glad for example,if the first shop of Frederic Malle in Eastern Europe is in my city. 🙂

  • I love the idea of more widespread boutique presence. This is a great business strategy. I look forward to something new from him in 2012.

  • that could be a smart move, who knows-he explains it nicely, but it’s PR
    I only can read about his wonderful fragrances and I think his concept stores are very well planned- I have to wait till my next trip in order to experience…- no niche fragrances whatsoever where I live
    thanks for the draw

  • There’s a Barneys here in San Francisco, but I like the idea of distribution in random, mid-sized cities or perhaps even idyllic vacation spots. Unexpected chic in quirky places–just the likeliest place for someone to explore and buy a new scent. A boutique in an unexpected place would seem more likely to grab new customers who aren’t already in the know regarding Malle’s line.

  • I love it! Smaller cities only have access to the regular department stores and a Sephora if they’re lucky. It’s a mostly untapped market, so I think it would be fun to see how his brand does in these smaller cities. I live in Greenville, SC, so only a Sephora here!

  • I live in Romania, Eastern Europe. Not many stores that have niche perfumes here, only a few and those are not close to me because I am far from the capital. A great idea with perfume shops in smaller cities. I would really like to win these samples for I love Malle perfumes.
    Thanks for the giveaway.

  • I live in Chicago, and we have a Barney’s in the Loop, but how lovely it would be for Frederic Malle to set up shop in one of the northern suburbs, perhaps Evanston!

  • I’m lucky in Vancouver in having a department store (Holt Renfrew) that carries Frederic Malle, and know that it can be handy for scent lovers outside of the city as a source for ordering from, but I really applaud his decision to reach out to more small, independent retailers and to small cities. Even though it may be easy to find almost any scent online these days and have it shipped, visiting a perfume boutique is a special pleasure that needs to be more widely available.

  • Where I live, Resita (Romania), we have only a shop that has perfumes like Armani or Givenchy. I do not know what someone understands by a small city. Our city has like 90k people but it is not that small. I think in the USA a city with 300k is a small one therefore, yes, it would be ok to have a niche store in a city like that, but here, in Romania, it would not be a lucky strike.