LONDON — Roja Dove, an often-quoted perfumer-cum-retailer who runs the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie prestige fragrance concession at Harrods department store’s Urban Retreat space, plans to roost in House of Fraser department stores here.
He will open Roja Dove Parfumerie shops-in-shops in three House of Fraser doors starting next month.
The 400-square-foot spaces will carry a selection of prestige scents selected by Dove and will offer personal consultations and olfactory profiling for customers.
Items available will include Balenciaga’s Le Dix, Balmain’s Jolie Madame, Caron’s Narcisse Noir, Christian Dior’s Diorissimo, Creed’s Fleurissimo, Different Company’s Osmanthus, Donna Karan’s Lavender Essence, Estée Lauder’s Youth Dew, Giorgio Armani’s Armani Pour Homme, Givenchy’s Givenchy Gentleman, Guerlain’s Habit Rouge, Jean-Charles Brosseau’s Ombre Rose, Lalique’s Le Parfum, Serge Lutens’ Sa Majeste La Rose, Thierry Mugler’s Angel and Weil’s Zibeline.
The spaces may stock numerous scents by a brand, but not necessarily stock entire collections.
“We’re the first national department store to do something like this,” said Tracy Stone, head of beauty buying. “It’s important that we show our customers that service and luxury are important to us.”
The initiative is meant to offer customers an alternative taste of the fragrance industry, which Dove believes has gone down-market in recent years.
“It has lost, in my opinion, real prestige and luxury,” he said during a recent interview. “Who feels wonderful when they’ve bought a fragrance at a discount store? What does it feel like to smell cheap?”
The Parfumeries will never mark down items or offer discounts. “There are consumers out there who are looking for products not just based on price,” he said. “[Customers] should walk out feeling like they have a little bottle of magic in their bag.”
The Parfumeries won’t sell limited-edition scents.
Dove employed strict selection criteria when deciding on the Parfumeries’ mix.
“It’s very simple,” he explained. “It has to be a big fragrance that’s truly qualitative and be highly innovative — or was innovative at the time when it was launched and started trends. It has to be the best of the best.” For Dove, such a tightly edited offering is an antidote to today’s overcrowded market. “Consumers find [the fragrance offer] confusing; they feel they can’t find their way around,” he said.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Stone noted that while niche fragrance is still a relatively small category for House of Fraser, it’s extremely dynamic.
“Our biggest growth area is what we call ‘prime timers’ — women who are 40-plus with a disposable income. Their children are leaving home,” she said. “They want luxury products that are going to last and going to work. She wants something that stands out.”
To help customers navigate the Parfumeries’ offerings, Dove has also teamed up with fragrance supplier Quest International to offer Roja Dove’s Fragrance Quest, a computer-based fragrance profiling system. With the aid of Parfumerie staff, a client will feed into a computer information on her tastes and personality, and will smell and rate odors. That information will be used to select 10 fragrances that should appeal to her. The service will cost 25 pounds, or $47.25 at current exchange, which will be redeemable against a purchase.
Parfumerie spaces will open in House of Fraser stores in Manchester and Guildford, as well as a House of Fraser-owned Jenners store in Edinburgh this fall.
The Parfumeries, created by London design firm Kinnersley Kent, will have an opulent feel and feature ornate furniture. Printed transparent glass screens will separate the Parfumeries from the main beauty floors.
Industry sources estimate the spaces could each generate retail sales of 1 million pounds, or $1.9 million, in their first year.