I was in Paris for a couple of days this week but I just missed the new opening from the Dover Street Market clan. I’m back again on Friday though so I’m planning to pop in to Dover Street Parfums Market, the new outpost that focuses solely on beauty. I feel it’s a good time for an entirely new beauty concept store and who better to orchestrate it than Rei and Adrian, with the help of Sarah Andelman (of Colette fame)?
“I want to find the equivalents of Simone Rocha and Craig Green in the beauty business,” says Dover Street Market CEO Adrian Joffe in WWD (pay wall). Disrupting traditional beauty retail with a discovery-based layout that rejects the usual glass cabinets and
supermodel super-actress ad campaigns, the Marais-located store will sell mass, niche and ultra niche fragrance brands accompanied by skincare, hair care, make-up, grooming and wellness. The unpredictable high-low mix is all part of the DSM fashion DNA and should translate just as seamlessly to beauty.
Also key: a non-binary approach, and a skew to organic and ‘natural’ brands as per the current consumer mood. Thom Browne’s new perfume range is an exclusive, while Gucci’s The Alchemist’s Garden collection and Byredo are obvious crowd pleasers. Lesser known are AER, a German botanical fragrance line and Ormaie, a Parisian fragrance brand inspired by art, nature and creativity. The bottles are made by a sustainable glassmaker with sculptural wooden tops carved from beech sourced from renewable forests.
As is the Dover Street Market way, the store will host guest brands and pop-up ‘activations’, including – currently showing – an exhibition of wigs by fashion show darling, Julien d’Ys.
Westman Atelier, the make-up line by Gucci Westman is likely to pull in a few punters and I love that there’s a MAC Cosmetics corner, showing some love to the 90s originals. Refillable luxury lipstick brand La Bouche Rouge is also present, with an exclusive black lipstick created especially for Dover Street Parfums Market. On the skincare front, Francisco Costa’s Costa Brazil line gets the ultimate seal of approval – Joffe says he uses its Kaya anti-ageing oil every day.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Dover Street Parfums Market and WWD
NOTE: Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.