Aedes Perfumery: A Small Temple of Beauty, Built Around Scents They Believe In

…products we believe in and use ourselves…

Karl Bradl, 2005

Since 1995, New York’s Aedes Perfumery has worked to introduce people to fragrances they have yet to discover. It began as Aedes de Venustas. There is now a perfume brand of that name too, but before it came a small shop selecting and introducing fragrances from around the world.

Fresh flowers, old furniture, perfume bottles. Behind the sumptuous setting is an approach that gives customers time to decide and brings the creators’ thinking into the conversation. Following the shop’s history reveals how niche perfume found its way into everyday life in America.

Essential information
The founders and the origins of the perfumery
The thinking behind the selection, service, and space
The relationship between the perfume brand and the multi-brand shop
The shop today, and ways to explore without visiting
Additional note
References

Essential information

Opened: March 1995, on Christopher Street, New York
Co-founders: Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner
Current shop name: Aedes Perfumery
Address: 16A Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002
Official website: Aedes Perfumery

As of October 2026, the official information lists opening hours of noon to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday, with the shop closed on Sundays. It is a multi-brand retailer operating both in-store and online. Its own perfume brand, Aedes de Venustas, is a separate activity begun in 2012, with a dedicated official website of its own.

The founders and the origins of the perfumery

From Germany to New York, looking for their next venture

Bradl grew up in a small German town and moved to Munich at eighteen. While working in banking, he spent lunch breaks visiting the perfume shop across the street. Gerstner’s job in New York brought the two to America in September 1992. Bradl found retail work at Bagutta in SoHo.

Their route to opening the shop becomes clearer when each man’s recollections are read within their own scope. Bradl had planned to create a skincare department in a friend’s shop, and continued seeking hard-to-find brands even when that plan fell through. Gerstner’s account, meanwhile, describes the withdrawal of the company that had brought him to America and his determination to stay in New York rather than return to Germany.

In 1994, they envisaged a shop like a European perfumery, introducing distinctive perfumes, cosmetics, and candles together. According to Gerstner, the premises they could afford were a small basement space. Without funds for a large sales floor, they decorated according to their own taste and chose a Latin name that Americans would find difficult to pronounce and remember.

Opening in 1995 under the name “Temple of Beauty”

On a cold January night in 1995, they were walking through Greenwich Village when they found premises on Christopher Street. Long queues formed outside the MAC shop opposite at weekends. Where people gathered to buy cosmetics, perhaps they might also encounter unfamiliar scents. The shop opened that March.

Aedes de Venustas is a name the two explain as “Temple of Beauty.” Gerstner said they chose Latin because they would carry unusual perfumes from around the world. A name not confined to one place or one country’s brands suited the assortment.

They wanted scents seldom encountered in department stores and service focused on the individual. Bradl himself had lost interest in everyone wearing the same fashionable perfumes, then rediscovered his enthusiasm through unusual fragrances. New York was not without specialist perfumeries, however. Aedes distinguished itself with a selection of lesser-known creators, guided by the shop’s own judgement.

Flower-decorated gifts reach the fashion world

To introduce the shop, Bradl took a gift decorated with flowers to Vogue’s beauty editor. Gerstner recalled that Naomi Campbell read a short magazine mention and visited around Christmas, roughly a year after the opening. Delighted to find brands difficult to obtain in America, she ordered gifts for models, designers, and photographers.

It was not only the perfume but also its presentation as a gift that spread word of the shop. Flowers extended beyond shelf decoration into gift wrapping. Gerstner’s account of floral gift wrap describes the practical idea of adorning boxes with fresh flowers. It carried the atmosphere of their space all the way to the recipient.

From Christopher Street to the Lower East Side

The shop moved along Christopher Street and was trading at number 9 by 2005. Gerstner explained that even after the business prospered and they moved a few doors away, their approach to furniture and decoration remained unchanged. They might add furniture or a vase, but the space itself was the shop’s identity.

Not at all.

Robert Gerstner, on changes to the Christopher Street interior; translated from German

By November 2015, a visit report described the shop at nearby 7 Greenwich Avenue. There were large crystal chandeliers, long velvet curtains, and burgundy walls. The fireplace surround and mirror had also travelled from the old premises. Although the address had changed, familiar elements remained for returning customers.

In 2018, Aedes moved to 16A Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, a change after more than twenty years in the West Village. The current official website uses Aedes Perfumery as the shop name and describes its history and individual fragrance advice.

Even though the shop and brand names now appear distinct, the perfumery’s work continues. The official profile describing the brand’s 2021 relaunch separately records the shop’s activity since 1995. That relaunch should not be mistaken for the opening of a new shop or a change of founders.

Timeline of the shop and perfume brand

Date	Event
September 1992	Bradl and Gerstner move to New York.
March 1995	Aedes de Venustas opens on Christopher Street.
2005	Trading at 9 Christopher Street. A collaboration with L’Artisan Parfumeur begins with a home fragrance bearing the shop’s name.
2008	An eau de parfum of the same name appears in collaboration with L’Artisan Parfumeur.
2012	The shop launches its own perfume brand and introduces Signature.
By November 2015	The shop moves to 7 Greenwich Avenue, retaining furniture and decoration from the earlier premises.
2018	The shop moves to 16A Orchard Street.
November 2021	The in-house perfume collection relaunches in new bottles.
October 2026	The official website describes the shop at 16A Orchard Street and its online assortment.

The thinking behind the selection, service, and space

Scents they believe in, rather than simply familiar names

In 2009, the shop stocked substantial collections of Serge Lutens and Diptyque alongside scents by Shalini and Hotel Costes. Beyond perfume, it carried Claus Porto soaps, Agraria potpourri, and Mariage Frères candles. Fragrances for the body and for time spent in a room met in the same shop.

Bringing independent perfume to customers does not mean that every brand stocked remains independently owned today. The shop has chosen forms of perfume expression that cannot be understood through familiar names alone. Nor should its past shelves be treated as a current stock list.

The current official website introduces Astier de Villatte, Santa Maria Novella, Trudon, Lubin, and Memo Paris, among others. It also features Nomenclature, which Bradl co-founded. A brand focused on synthetic fragrance molecules stands alongside long-established houses in one perfumery. The shop’s role is not to erase their differences, but to offer different ways into their creative worlds.

Making time to think with samples before buying

The service Bradl described in 2005 differed from the assertive approach one might imagine from the shop’s lavish interior. He selected only products he trusted and personally used.

…would rather send someone home with a sample before making a wrong decision…

Karl Bradl, 2005

A 2009 visit likewise described a small, experienced team allowing customers to browse without pressure and helping them choose when needed. The shop was portrayed as welcoming not only well-known actors and fashion figures, but also fragrance lovers whose names were not famous.

Staff helped sustain that experience. Bradl’s 2005 account mentions manager Miguel; in a 2015 visit report, José Osorio patiently guides a visitor through several brands. A shop depends not only on its founders’ aesthetic, but also on people willing to spend time with customers’ uncertainty. These are records of staff at those particular moments, however.

Bringing makers’ stories into conversations in the shop

In 2015, Gerstner used Frédéric Malle’s “En Passant” as an example of his service. He had asked perfumer Olivia Giacobetti what she wanted to create. Hearing directly from her about the first day of spring and walking along the Seine, he passed that idea on to customers.

Yes, a true story.

Robert Gerstner, 2015

His “story” was not an explanation added later to embellish a bottle. It meant hearing the maker’s intention and connecting it with the scent in front of the customer. This approach can also guide how we read about perfume without visiting the shop. Rather than deciding an author’s aim from ingredient names alone, understanding why a scent was created can change how we see it.

Flowers and old furniture create a space for fragrance

The Christopher Street shop contained antique glass-fronted cabinets, chandeliers, Victorian-style sofas, and a taxidermy peacock. The owners chose fresh flowers for the space throughout the seasons. The 2009 visit report conveys a sales floor where intimacy and opulence coexisted.

At Greenwich Avenue in 2015, just as memorable as descriptions of sumptuous furniture were scenes of choosing candles and room sprays through repeated exchanges with staff. Time spent talking and selecting fragrance was layered into a space designed to be seen.

That aesthetic also appears in an in-house fragrance inspired by the present shop. “Amnesia Rose,” released in 2023, drew on its still-life-like scene of flowers overflowing rounded vases, old fabrics, and taxidermy birds. Luca Maffei composed the fragrance, translating the appearance of pale purple roses into an expression that included spices and woods. The shop’s space became not just a backdrop for perfume, but a subject from which perfume could emerge.

The relationship between the perfume brand and the multi-brand shop

From collaborations bearing the shop’s name to a brand of its own

In 2005, the shop created a home fragrance with L’Artisan Parfumeur under its own name, followed in 2008 by an eau de parfum of the same name. The collaboration was also mentioned in a 2009 guide to the shop.

The in-house brand’s 2012 Signature is a different creation. Working with its perfumer, Bertrand Duchaufour, the founders created a scent centred on rhubarb. A piece of fabric used in the shop inspired its burgundy velvet box. Despite their shared name, the L’Artisan collaboration and the first perfume of the in-house brand should not be confused.

Their own perfumes occupy the shelves alongside other brands

What did becoming perfume creators mean for a shop carrying other brands? In 2015, Gerstner acknowledged that some retailers were reluctant to stock another retailer’s brand, while making his own shop’s approach clear.

We treat our brand in our store the same way we treat every other brand.

Robert Gerstner, 2015

Aedes’ current About page still describes its own collection alongside its assortment of other houses. Aedes Perfumery is the shop introducing multiple creators; Aedes de Venustas is the perfume brand the founders create with perfumers. Understanding that relationship explains why 1995 for the shop and 2012 for the brand have separate meanings.

Turning the move to Orchard Street into perfume

“16a Orchard,” released in 2021, was commissioned to mark the move to a new address and the shop’s fresh start. Frank Voelkl took root-derived materials such as ginger and iris as his starting point, seeking to express peace of mind through a concise composition.

The move occurred in 2018; the perfume deepened the meaning of the new beginning in 2021. They were not events of the same year. Gerstner spoke about putting down roots in a new neighbourhood during a period of major changes in life. Naming a fragrance after the address offers a concrete example of the connection between shop and brand.

The shop today, and ways to explore without visiting

The current official information describes consultations with dedicated fragrance advisers at 16A Orchard Street. The individual service that has been part of the shop’s approach since opening remains present in its description today.

From afar, one can explore its selection through the official brand directory and sampling programmes. Discovery Sample Kits include not only brand-specific combinations, but also the shop’s own themes, such as citrus, amber and incense, and fig. They offer both an overview of individual brands and ways of moving across them through fragrance themes.

Individual perfume pages describe the creative background and sampling options, while prices and delivery terms can be checked at the time. What matters here is less the number of products online than what the shop places together. Even without going to New York, an interest in one ingredient or maker can lead to another form of expression.

Aedes has continued the work of turning unfamiliar names into fragrances worth getting to know. Arranging flowers, tending shelves, asking creators questions, and listening to customers’ hesitations: these repeated acts have developed the words with which a perfume is introduced.

Additional note

Later accounts sometimes date the move to 7 Greenwich Avenue to 2016. Because a visit report dated November 11, 2015 already describes the new premises, this article uses “by November 2015.” The current address and opening hours are based on official information from October 2026.