Fragrant Manhattan

October 20, 2004

Ask New Yorkers what their city smells like, and they're likely to suggest exhaust fumes, hot dog carts or the last garbage strike.

Not so, says perfume-seller Laurice Rahme, who thinks New York neighbourhoods smell so good that they're worthy of a line of fragrances. The newest one, Wall Street, debuts on November 1.

"You don't know how many times I've heard that New York smells bad and how can I live here? But New York smells good to me," said Rahme, a Paris native who moved here 30 years ago.

The collection of 21 fragrances ranges from a bouquet scent for Chelsea, the city's flower district, to a rich coffee- and vanilla-tinged New Haarlem. The chamomile-based fragrance Park Avenue is elegant, while Fashion Avenue is an avant-garde combination of mimosa and black currant.

The Wall Street fragrance does not, she points out, smell like money. Rather, the scent, at $190 for a 100 ml bottle, combines sea kale, cucumber and lavender to reflect the area's waterfront and emergence as one of the city's newest residential neighbourhoods.

"I didn't want a white-shirt, masculine scent. It's the new Wall Street," said Rahme at her shop, Bond No. 9. "It's the spirit of the neighbourhood."

The neighbourhood scents are translating into dollars and cents for Rahme, who is on track to make more than $6 million in retail US sales of the fragrances this year.

"Since (the) September 11 (attacks), people want to feel more secure, and the neighbourhood is a cocoon," she said.

Visitors may have a different motive. "With New York, it's love or hate. Even when they hate us, they want a piece of us," she said. "It's envy.

- Reuters

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