Le Labo Brings Artisan Fragrance to Magazine Street

Le Labo is opening on Magazine Street in the former Katie Koch Home space at 3907 Magazine, next door to the newly opened Reformation. Katie Koch Home relocated to Jena Street earlier this year, making room for Le Labo's first Gulf Coast location. Esom Art will also relocate to join Le Labo in the space, creating a unique arrangement that adds both fragrance and fine art to this stretch of Magazine. The opening is scheduled for fall.

Le Labo has built a cult following for its hand-blended fragrances and slow retail approach. Founded in 2006 in New York's Nolita neighborhood, the brand mixes each fragrance fresh to order, hand-labels bottles with the customer's name and date, and emphasizes craft over mass production.

One thing that makes this opening particularly interesting is Le Labo's history of creating City Exclusive scents for select locations. These are fragrances developed specifically for a place, available only in that city or online once a year. Dallas has Aldehyde 44. San Francisco has Limette 37. Miami has Tabac 28. They don't do it for every market, but when they do, the scent becomes an olfactory signature tied to that place.

New Orleans doesn't have a City Exclusive yet, and Le Labo hasn't announced plans to create one. But it's hard not to wonder what a New Orleans scent might be. Something rooted in magnolia, night-blooming jasmine, or café au lait and chicory? A fragrance built around humid air, old wood, and the smell of rain on hot pavement? It's just an idea, but it's a fun one to think about.

With Tasc Performance, Marine Layer, Untuckit, Rowan, Greyson Clothiers, Mignon Faget, Upper Atmosphere, and other galleries and restaurants all within a few blocks, this stretch is shaping up as a destination for the kind of slow, considered shopping Magazine Street does best.

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