It’s probably not by chance that Malle chose the Paris neighborhood with the highest concentration of publishing houses—within a stone’s throw of St-Germain-des-Prés—to open his avant-garde perfume boutique. He does, after all, define himself as “a publisher of fragrances.” Following 12 years of training at some of the most prestigious perfume labs, Malle became a perfume consultant in 1994, creating fragrances for such haute-couture houses as Christian Lacroix and Hermès. But during all those years he kept dreaming of giving perfumes back their lost identity as rare luxury products.

His dream has now materialized in his own perfume shop, light years away from the traditional multibrand retail outlet. He selected seven talented perfumers and asked them each to create one exclusive perfume, freeing them from financial or marketing limits. The result: Seven brand new fragrances, each reflecting its perfumer’s personality, are now produced and sold exclusively by Malle in his Parisian boutique. With the enthusiasm of a publisher discovering a new writer, he savors his role as “go-between,” smoothing the way for fortuitous meetings of customers and anonymous perfumers.

In order to make the difficult task of choosing a perfume easier for the customer, Malle has installed in his Rue de Grenelle boutique a state-of-the-art-technology formerly seen only in the lab. With the help of trendy interior designer Andrée Putman, Malle designed the shop as a neutral lab-like space. Transparent columns—actually olfactory booths where perfumes are scientifically diffused—give customers the most favorable conditions in which to accurately appreciate the many notes of a fragrance. The salespersons—all young graduates of the prestigious ISIPCA perfume and cosmetology institute—have a thorough knowledge of perfume ingredients, their interaction and reaction with the skin.

One of the perfumers selected by Malle, Michel Roudnitska, has a name that's famous in the perfume industry. His late father, Edmond, was considered to be one of the most talented noses of his time. Along with his own creation—"Noir Epices," a sensual oriental scent with a citrus note—Michel Roudnitska brought "L'Eau de Thérèse," an illustrious but never marketed fragrance created for his mother by his father. It is considered to be one of Edmond Roudnitska's greatest perfumes, on a par with his most famous scents: "Femme," created for Marcel Rochas, and "L'Eau Sauvage," "Diorissimo" and "Diorella," alchemized for Christian Dior. The mythic "Eau de Thérèse" can now be found only at Malle's boutique.

Each perfume is sold in two sizes: 50 and 100 ml. Prices range from FF300 to FF720, according to size and composition.