Retail Spotlight
How a nurse turned her passion for perfume into a profession.
Posted by: Amanda Austin on May 21, 2012 at 06:00AM
First Avenue shop owner Nasreen Rehmat stands before one of her fragrance favorite collections: the colorfully packaged Bond No. 9 New York.
Back in the ‘80s, Nasreen Rehmat and her husband were running a drugstore on 23rd and Jackson, but things weren’t going well. “I married you for better or for worse, but this is the goddamn pits,” she remembers telling him. The couple was driving through downtown when they saw an empty storefront where a First Avenue floral shop had been.
“I told him to pull over the car; I got the landlord’s number and called him the next day. Two days later I signed the lease,” Rehmat recalls. The then-intensive care nurse opened Parfumerie Nasreen, and within two years outgrew her husband’s business.
WWW: What song or album is playing on your store’s sound system right now?
Rehmat: “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles. I work 65 hours a week, so I let my associate choose the music. She plays a mixture of the Beatles and Adele.
What’s your favorite thing in the store right now?
Oh my god. Oh, that is so hard! My favorite, favorite, favorite of all time lines is a line I bring in from the Sultanate of Oman, called Amouage. I wish I could tell you there’s a bad fragrance in their repertoire, but there isn’t. It is a very unknown brand, a niche brand in America, obviously, but because of my passion for this line, you would be amazed at the following I have for Amouage! There are nine fragrances, the line is so unique and so different.
The second favorite line is by a very niche perfumer, Martine Micallef. She does what is quite unique—first of all her fragrances are handmade and the bottles are superb—but she uses a very rare ingredient called “oud.” It’s a resin that comes from an Agarwood tree. In the middle east, it’s quite prevalent. Lately, everybody has gotten on the oud bandwagon, but I think Martine Micallef has nailed it. She just does Aouds (her special spelling) like nobody else I know.
Where do you shop when you’re not at your store?
You really want me to be honest? I hate going to retail stores. I usually am a creature of convenience. I do go to Nordstrom and Neiman, but I will go online to Saks. I shop quite a bit online.
What do you love about your store’s neighborhood? What nearby restaurants and coffee shops do you recommend?
I live in the Watermark, so this really is my neighborhood. There are some amazing places: Wild Ginger, Place Pigalle in the market; I love Le Pichet. I love Il Terrazzo Carmine, just past Jackson on First Ave. That’s probably my all time favorite. Then there is the Met, which is superb! And I would be crass if I did not say the Library Bistro and Bookstore Bar here inside the Alexis Hotel alongside me. And don’t forget the local drugstore, Pacific Drugs, which we used to own.
What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened in your store?
This one time, a beautiful European couple was in the store. The woman was stunning, the boy was even better, and she was helping him so nicely to pick a fragrance for himself. So finally, they decided on a fragrance for him, so he brought it to the counter, and I said, “Oh she’s so lovely!” And he said, “I know, isn’t she?” And I said, “So you should ask her to marry you,” and he said, “I can’t, she’s my step-mother.” I almost had a heart attack; I thought I was going to kill myself.
There are so many crazy stories in here. When Issey Miyake first came out, I called it my virgin fragrance. These two gals walked in, and of course, being the vociferous person I am, I told them, "This is my virgin fragrance; it’s always nice to pretend!” The two of them turned to me and said, “We’re nuns.”
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