Why Banana Is Summer's Freshest Fragrance

New York Times

22-05-2025

Sophisticated Banana Scents
Banana typically brings to mind the cloying scent of certain sunscreens or sugary taffy, but now a group of brands are offering more elevated takes on the fruit. The Barcelona-based perfume maker 27 87, which specializes in unconventional fragrances, recently launched its newest scent, Hakuna Matata, which pairs green banana peel and ripe banana with jasmine, orange blossom and a hint of honey. 'We typically connect to the very fruity part of the banana scent,' says Romy Kowalewski, the brand's creative director and founder. 'It actually has another very sophisticated aspect — creamy with a subtle white floral note — that I wanted to highlight.' The Korean fragrance company Borntostandout takes a different approach to banana with its Nanatopia bottle, which leans into the richness of the fruit by evoking fresh-from-the-oven, caramelized banana bread with notes of rum, cinnamon and tonka bean. For those looking to add the scent to their shower routine, the New York-based skin care brand Soft Services' exfoliating Green Banana Buffing Bar has a freshness reminiscent of the fruit in its leafy, unripe form. And for added visual intrigue, consider the Bananas Candle from Wary Meyers, hand-poured in Cumberland, Maine, and complete with a blue-and-yellow graphic label — a cheeky nod to Chiquita bananas.
A Stylish Guesthouse on the Shores of Lake Michigan
In 2010, after working as a visual director for Barneys Chicago, Ariane Prewitt opened her own shop, AP, which became two shops that sit side by side in Lakeside, Mich. One focuses on fashion and offers handicraft-focused lines such as Nanna Pause and Dušan, while the other — set in a 19th-century house with gingerbread trim — is more a gallery for art objects and home goods. Lakeside is one of the idyllic towns scattered along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. Prewitt's customers come from all over, and they'll sometimes ask to stay in the apartment tucked behind the gallery. That's reserved for employees or designers passing through for trunk shows, but now, with the opening of Shamrock House — a 1930s-era clapboard cottage close to the store and even closer to the water — Prewitt has a real rental to recommend.
She first noticed the cottage while scootering to work in 2020, and renovating it became a pandemic project for her and her husband, the artist and musician Archer Prewitt. The couple raised the ceilings, added skylights and decorated with an emphasis, says Ariane, on 'small luxuries,' including an unlacquered brass deVol faucet in the kitchen, hand-drawn Lake August floral wallpaper in one of the two bedrooms and a curvilinear wood sculpture by Rick Yoshimoto in the living room. The same held true for the property's outdoor space, where guests will find a cedar-clad hot tub and a boxy picnic table. They'll also want to venture farther out: to the gas station turned wine bar Out There, to the antiques shops Alchemy and Trilogy, to Granor Farm and Farmette for fresh produce and to Cherry Beach for a swim in the oceanesque lake. From $395 a night, apshoplakeside.com/shamrock-house.
Paul Thek's Sketches and Paintings, on View in London
The Brooklyn-born artist Paul Thek gained recognition in New York's 1960s art scene with his disturbingly realistic wax sculptures of raw meat housed in plexiglass cases and ephemeral installations of newspapers, candles, flowers and eggs that explored themes of mortality and spirituality. He was 54 when he died, in 1988, of complications related to AIDS. This month, a new show of Thek's paintings, including works on paper and a previously unseen notebook of sketches and writings, opens at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, co-curated by the artist and lecturer Kenny Schachter and the fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, who recently displayed Thek's sculptures in his spring 2025 men's wear runway show for Loewe. This is the first British exhibition dedicated to Thek's painting practice, and it showcases a quieter, more delicate side of the artist. His landscape paintings of Mediterranean coastlines and New York cityscapes, rendered in watercolor, acrylic and ink, are more dreamlike and meditative than his sculptures, offering an intimate glimpse of his visual universe. For Schacter, the paintings and works on paper encapsulate Thek's artistic philosophy: 'It was a never-ending, incomplete process.' 'Paul Thek: Seized by Joy. Paintings 1965-1988' is on view from May 29 through Aug. 2, thomasdanegallery.com.
A Texas Painter's Perfume That's Intended to Conjure 'Cowboy Sensuality'
The Texas-born artist RF Alvarez began his career as a painter when his husband's job returned him to his home state. Now based in Austin, he depicts his queer inner circle with intimate paintings of parties, couples and solitary moments, at times blending or contrasting with the state's landscape. Lately, he's also been channeling those themes of what he calls 'Texas heritage and carnal memory' through his first fragrance, called Carrasco. Named after his grandfather's favorite horse (Alvarez descends from a long line of cattle ranchers), the scent was created in collaboration with the Austin-based perfumer Studi.Omo, which engineered its smoky, animalic notes — among them Texas cedar, oak moss, birch tar and Tonkin musk — to evoke both his grandfather's truck and the sweaty clubs that the artist frequents. Encased in an earthy vessel created by the ceramist Peter Sheldon, a longtime friend of Alvarez's, Carrasco is limited to 100 bottles. The first half of these have already sold, with a second batch of 25 available now and a final drop coming in August. This marks Alvarez's second expansion beyond the canvas, after a line of ceramics he and Sheldon created in 2022. He says world building is central to his practice: 'I like the idea of developing a narrative of a Texas cultural landscape that's innately queer, sexy and trying to reconcile a past heritage and its future.' $250, available at rfalvarez.com.
A Hotel in Taos, N.M., With Adobe Walls and a 100-Year-Old Willow
In the 1970s, the architect Michael Reynolds began building what he called Earthships — homes whose walls were made of beer cans, bottles and other waste — in Taos, N.M. This summer brings another sort of recycled lodging to northern New Mexico's high desert. Hotel Willa was a derelict 1960s motor lodge on the fringes of Taos's historic district. Now it's a 50-room boutique hotel whose restaurant and art gallery are overseen by deep-rooted locals. Maintaining a connection to the community is part of the ethos for the California-based hotel group Casetta; it's also a wise approach in a small town with a countercultural bent. The chef Johnny Ortiz-Concha, who grew up in the nearby Taos Pueblo, and the artist Maida Branch are helming the restaurant Juliette, named for Ortiz-Concha's mother. The menu will feature foraged herbs, coal-roasted vegetables and sodas dosed with medicinal plants, served on dishware by the Taos potter Logan Wannamaker. When gut renovating the property, Casetta kept the thick adobe walls, original wood beams (known as vigas) and a hundred-year-old willow tree. They added a sauna and cold plunge, rounded interior corners that are a signature of the local architectural vernacular and a 2,000-square-foot art gallery. The Paseo Project, a community arts nonprofit, manages it; the inaugural exhibition will showcase area artists and artisans, including some who contributed to Hotel Willa's construction. From about $250 a night, hotelwilla.com.
A New Beauty Brand Focused on After-Sun Skin Care
The sunscreen market has seen a wave of innovation in recent years — less so the after-sun category, long the purview of bright green aloe vera gel. Zure Solaris, a new skin-care range by the British creative director Samuel Cheney and the Irish photographer Aaron Hurley, aims to redefine that ritual, with equal focus on cellular renewal and cinematic mood. 'It's that time of day when you come back to your hotel suite and blast the air-conditioning and have that first shower,' says Cheney, setting the scene for the brand's initial lineup: four formulas featuring its Solar Repair Complex, designed to inhibit hyperpigmentation, stimulate regeneration and calm inflammation. The line's Shower Rinse begins the reset, sloughing off the day's buildup while conditioning the skin. The Body Treatment, a lightweight moisturizer, is all about replenishment, with barrier-strengthening amino acids and tremella mushroom to boost collagen production. For the face, there's the Cooling Infusion, a quenching essence best straight from the fridge, and the Essential Serum, a multitasking formula designed to brighten and firm the skin. The founders appreciate the universality of golden hour, as reflected in the body products' transportive fragrance, which channels city rooftops and cliffside beaches with notes of spicy ginger, night-blooming flora and suede. From $58, cosbar.com.