Paris smells different today: the new Jacques Fath Parfums flagship on Avenue Victor Hugo

If you think Paris has become a carousel of neon concept stores, let me reassure you. The new Jacques Fath Parfums flagship at 12 Avenue Victor Hugo is the antidote. It is intimate, grown up, and unabashedly devoted to perfume itself. Creative Director Rania Naim didn’t go for spectacle, she went for atmosphere, which is rarer and far more seductive.

This address suits the brand. The 16th arrondissement doesn’t shout, it smolders. Fath was never about clout-chasing anyway. He is the couturier whose perfumes outlived the runway chatter, the house that keeps tugging at the sleeves of anyone who loves radiance tempered with restraint.

If you visit, go with a plan. Not to rush, but to savor. Here is what I’d reach for first, and why:

• Green Water: The definitive chic citrus. Crisp, minty, sunlit without turning juvenile. If you’ve been hunting for a summer signature that still wears a blazer, this is it.
• Iris Gris: The legend returns with apricot-satin facets and a cool, silken iris that never feels powdered or prim. It is a love letter to skin rather than to sillage.
• Ciel de Fath: Airy on paper, magnetic on skin. Think pale light on silk, then add the hush of a private conversation.
• Fath de Fath: For nights when you need less sparkle and more presence. Deep, elegant, and unapologetically adult.

What I appreciate most about the Maison is the permission it gives you to slow down. No hard sell, no pseudo-art installations. Just blotters, time, and a team that clearly knows their materials. It is a space built for discovery, which is rarer than a new launch these days.

If you care about heritage that still feels modern on a wrist in 2025, make the pilgrimage. Stand on Avenue Victor Hugo, inhale the city’s quiet, then step inside and let the classics remind you why Paris became the word for perfume in the first place.