Via Press Release – City parks have always intrigued us at Bond No. 9. These oases of serene greenery give New Yorkers a gathering place, an escape-hatch, and a time-out from the steel and concrete that surround and enclose us. What’s more, parks are filled with botanicals, so they smell good—and smelling good with a New York accent is what Bond No. 9 is all about. So it’s no wonder that thus far, we’ve designed 6 New York park eaux de parfum, starting with Central Park and Gramercy Park, followed by Bryant Park, the High Line, Washington Square, and Madison Square Park. Now, just in time for spring 2012, comes a 7th—Central Park West—inspired by the fabled thoroughfare that runs the entire two-and-a-half mile length of our greatest urban grassland, situated just across the street.
Elegant thoroughfares with palatial buildings are in evidence elsewhere in Manhattan, but they’re the specialty at Central Park West, which urban planners and architectural critics regard as one of the grandest, most sumptuous addresses in America. Nowhere else can you find such an amazing line-up of neat and elegant grand-manner apartment houses—with the singular purpose of overlooking and honoring the magnificent greenery that, after all, is their front yard. For veteran insiders, the apartment enclaves of Central Park West—the Dakota, the San Remo, the Majestic, the Century—are quintessential New York, complete with their ballroom-size marble lobbies, private elevator halls, and banquet-style dining rooms And whether in Italian Renaissance, Beaux-Arts, or Art Deco style, many of these buildings look amazingly like the movie palaces of the Twenties—which may explain the street’s longstanding attraction for colorful celebrity-residents, including Zero Mostel and John Lennon. It’s also home to the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the New-York Historical Society, the acclaimed gourmet restaurant Jean Georges, and the Hayden Planetarium. This street is so grand, it has its own high-power access to the stars in the heavens.
Central Park West, the fragrance, has been designed to have the grandeur and largesse of the street itself. It starts off with a springtime wakeup call: Narcissus mingled with tangy ylang ylang and a pinch of piquant pepper. Then comes a beckoning white-petal mélange—orris, jasmine, and linden—surrounding their centerpiece, majestic gardenia. Sustaining and enriching this bouquet is an enduring base of white oak and vetiver, combined with the animal whiff of musk.
The Central Park West bottle captures the essence both of the neighborhood and the season. Against a pistachio background is a classic but oversize houndstooth check pattern (as pedigreed as the local architecture), updated here in purple—adding pizzazz. And wound around the neck is a gift—a detachable, double-row bracelet of pink beads with a big pink floral blossom (designed in-house, we are proud to say), which, like the coveted flower on last spring’s Madison Square Park, can be worn on its own as a brooch.
Central Park West arrives on-counter March 15, 2012 and will be sold at Bond No. 9’s five New York stores, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and bondno9.com. Price: 100ml, $250; 50ml, $180; body silk, $130; candle, $110; shower gel, $75.
Launch date: March 15, 2012
Product name, price (USD) and sizing (fl.oz):
Central Park West eau de parfum, $250, 3.4 oz
Central Park West eau de parfum, $180, 1.7 oz
Central Park West body silk, $130, 6.8 oz
Central Park West candle, $110, 6.4 oz
Central Park West shower gel, $75, 6.8 oz
Available at Bond No. 9’s five New York stores, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and bondno9.com
