Does This Perfume Smell Like Gentrification?

New York Times

21-04-2025

The Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint, much like its neighbor Williamsburg, has in recent decades been transformed. Once a working-class area with a local feel, an influx of buzzy restaurants, hip stores and pricey residences has given it the trappings of a global hot spot.
In 2024, Greenpoint was the 22nd most expensive neighborhood in New York City, according to a PropertyShark report, jumping up from its spot as the 32nd most expensive in 2023. Data provided by StreetEasy to The New York Times showed that the median asking rent in Greenpoint rose to about $4,400 last year, up from about $4,150 in 2023. The StreetEasy data also showed that the area's median asking rent rose more year-over-year than those in several Manhattan neighborhoods, including TriBeCa, NoLiTa, NoMad, Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side.
Last year was also when Laurice Rahmé decided it was time for her luxury fragrance brand, Bond No. 9, known for scents inspired by New York City locations, to expand into the neighborhood. In March, it did with the release of 'Greenpoint,' the company's latest perfume.
'Greenpoint has really been on the list for about two years, but I was not so convinced at the beginning,' Ms. Rahmé, 74, said in an interview, explaining that she changed her mind because 'so much has happened in Greenpoint, including Michelin-starred restaurants.'
'I'm saying to myself, 'Well, maybe the people who live there have a point.'' Ms. Rahmé said. 'It sounds very interesting.'
Indeed, when luxury condos and artisanal bakeries move in, Bond No. 9 sometimes follows. Other revitalized places that it has distilled into scents include Harlem and the High Line. So what does the whiff of gentrification smell like?
'What it is really about is not the architecture, it's the attitude in the neighborhood,' Ms. Rahmé said.
For Greenpoint, that meant a perfume described as having hints of 'juicy pear,' 'tree moss' and 'fresh cardamom,' which costs $470 for a 3.4-ounce bottle.
For the High Line, it meant a grassy floral fragrance priced at $420 a bottle and described as conjuring the 'urban renewal' of the elevated rail-line-turned-public-park surrounded by multimillion-dollar high-rise apartments.
And for Harlem, it meant a scent called 'New Haarlem' that was marketed as 'a highly potent caffeinated, all-but-drinkable coffee-patchouli blend' and priced at $360 a bottle.
Most of Bond No. 9's New York City fragrances take inspiration from locations in Manhattan — Greenpoint was among its first to be inspired by an outer-borough neighborhood. In 2007, the company introduced a 'Coney Island' perfume that was inspired by the smell of margaritas, among other scents. It costs $360 for a 3.4-ounce bottle.
Some of Bond No. 9's most expensive New York perfumes, like TriBeCa and Chelsea (both $460 a bottle), pay homage to areas where the real estate can trade for some of the highest prices in the city. 'Tribeca is the most expensive sales market in New York City,' said Kenny Lee, a senior economist at StreetEasy.
Ms. Rahmé said that the prices for perfumes were not influenced by the city's real estate market, but that they were determined based on factors including package design and ingredients.
She founded Bond No. 9 in the early 2000s, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The burning odor that lingered in parts of Manhattan inspired her 'to make New York smell good again,' as she put it. 'The mission statement was to give New York City's neighborhoods its own smell, its own scent,' she said. 'And the idea was to forget the bad smell.'
Kimberly Waters, who runs a small fragrance business, Muse: Modern Urban Sensory Experiences, out of her townhouse in Harlem, said she had never drawn a connection between the prices of Bond No. 9 products and the costs of living in the areas they were named for. Some of her customers have asked for Bond No. 9 perfumes, she added, but she does not carry them because her selection is 'a little bit more indie,' she said.
'I think it still is attractive to locals,' Ms. Waters, 43, said of Bond No. 9. 'I think it resonates with New Yorkers.'
For some who do not live in the city, the brand's perfumes are worth the price for the connection to it that they offer. 'Who doesn't want to be in New York?' said Dana Judge, a massage therapist in Tampa, Fla., who has been a Bond No. 9 fan for almost 20 years. 'I mean, there's no fragrance named after Florida.'
When Ms. Judge, 53, visited New York City with friends in June 2019, she made a solo visit to the Bond No. 9 store in SoHo, she said, and spent about $400 on its Greenwich Village scent.
'It kind of reminded me of when Carrie Bradshaw saw Manolo Blahnik in the window,' Ms. Judge said, referring to a 'Sex and the City' scene. 'When I walked in that store, I was like, 'Oh my god, I'm here.''