OFFICINE UNIVERSELLE BULY: A Nineteenth-Century Apothecary Re-created by Hand

When you enter any of our stores, you enter a bubble of ‘wow!’
Ramdane Touhami

The First Shop
The Thinking Behind the Stores
Stores to Visit
References

The First Shop

Buly’s history goes back to the shop Jean-Vincent Bully opened on rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1803. Ramdane Touhami and Victoire de Taillac revived the name for the present day. In 2014, they opened the first shop of the new Buly at 6 rue Bonaparte on the Left Bank of Paris.

They wanted a newly opened shop that would nevertheless make passers-by feel it had always been there. An antiques-dealer friend gave them an old product catalogue filled with bottle shapes and names for cosmetics that are unfamiliar today. Taking it as a starting point, they began creating a shop reminiscent of a nineteenth-century apothecary.

Ramdane chose a small street on the Left Bank. Wooden counters, fired-clay flooring and beams painted with flowers: everything from the floor tiles to the wall cabinets and display cases was designed for the shop, giving a new space the presence of an old apothecary.

We were very proud of the store and products, and it was great to see other people being enthusiastic from the first day.
Victoire de Taillac

In those early days, Victoire would spray the water-based Tubéreuse Eau Triple on her own skin, explaining the distinctive formulation to customers across the counter.

The approach to shop design that began on rue Bonaparte led to the opening in Tokyo’s Daikanyama district in 2017. Today, Buly has shops in Paris, Tokyo, Milan and other cities, each with a different interior suited to its surroundings.

Officine Universelle Buly 1803（オフィシーヌ・ユニヴェルセル・ビュリー）── 時を旅する美の万屋

オフィシーヌ・ユニヴェルセル・ビュリーの歴史、創業者、独自の店舗体験と香りづくりを解説。時を旅するような美の世界を紹介します。

The Thinking Behind the Stores

At the rue Bonaparte shop, Ramdane was pursuing hyperrealism. The atmosphere of a historic apothecary takes tangible form in the textures of furniture, stone and decoration. Drawing on local culture and aesthetic traditions, he considers lettering, graphics, furniture and light as elements of a single space.

The same care goes into the work of handing over a purchase. A member of staff takes an item from a shelf, selects its wrapping, asks the customer’s name and writes it on the box. For Victoire, bringing pleasure to customers through these exchanges was what mattered.

Calligraphy began with a practical idea for labels on which product names could be written by hand.

No printing hundreds of different labels! One label will do; we’ll write the product name by hand.
Ramdane Touhami, translated from French

Ramdane brought in a teacher to train the staff. The skill of writing beautifully became part of the work of the people in the shops.

Although the appearance of each shop changes with its location, the work of talking with customers, wrapping their purchases and adding handwritten words continues. Buly’s approach to its shops encompasses both the details of the space and every detail leading up to the moment a product is handed over.

Stores to Visit

Rue Bonaparte, Paris

The rue Bonaparte shop is the small space where the present-day Buly began. Walnut apothecary counters and wooden cabinetry surround the interior. Terracotta tiles cover the floor, and overhead are beams painted with floral patterns.

Nicolas Daul was involved in designing and making the decoration and fittings, under Ramdane’s creative direction. Wall cabinets and display cases were made to fit the space, while the stonework includes Brèche du Bénou, which Ramdane found in the Pyrenees. Behind details that make the shop look old is the work of finding materials, shaping them and putting them in place.

Illustration of Buly’s rue Bonaparte shop, with carved wooden shelves, floral-painted beams and a reddish-brown stone counter. — Shelves and counters at the rue Bonaparte shop (illustration)

When the shop first opened, the wooden shelves held large jars of oils, powders and clays from around the world. Customers’ selections were transferred into smaller containers to take away. Alongside water-based perfumes and soaps, the shop offered combs and brushes, and Victoire herself was there to advise customers. Within a setting reminiscent of an apothecary, choosing a purchase was a matter of talking together.

The shop continues to offer calligraphy, engraving and embossing. Names or lettering can be added to selected items.

Rue de Saintonge, Paris

Also in Paris, rue de Saintonge offers a different way to spend time in a shop. Set in the former premises of the Rudier Foundry, which cast works by Rodin and Bourdelle, it has fittings with 12 display cases and 52 drawers rising towards the ceiling.

Alongside the apothecary counter are a place to enjoy drinks from the Grand Café Tortoni and a room for treatments. Visitors can choose their purchases, then settle down with a drink. The business that began on rue Bonaparte has gained a place in which to linger.

Daikanyama, Tokyo

Any retail operation should necessarily take into account the specificity of the cities and regions in which the brand is located
Ramdane Touhami

In the Daikanyama shop, two spaces representing France and Japan face each other. After viewing around 100 properties in Tokyo, the couple chose a new building that had never been occupied. To oversee the details themselves, they moved to Tokyo with their family the year before the opening.

Craftspeople from France undertook the woodwork, while Japanese craftspeople worked on the concrete side. The two sets of skills face each other within one shop.

On the French side are ornate wooden cabinets and marble counters. Bottles sit behind glass doors, and the floor is laid with tiles in a blue-green and ivory geometric pattern. Doors are also concealed within the dark wood panelling, blending into their surroundings.

Opposite, the Japanese side has a polished concrete floor and cement counters. The lighting differs, too: warm on the woodwork side and bluish on the Japanese side. A slender gold line, inspired by kintsugi, runs along the boundary between the two floors.

Illustration of Buly’s Daikanyama shop, contrasting the blue-green niches on the left with carved wooden shelves on the right. — The two contrasting spaces at the Daikanyama shop (illustration)

Small windows containing plants encased in resin line the wall on the concrete side. Bluish light brings out the outlines of branches and leaves. Creating them required techniques both for drying plants while preserving their colour and for embedding them in acrylic resin.

Ramdane followed a florist’s introductions to find craftspeople, and struggled with sourcing the resin and meeting delivery schedules. Alongside French woodwork and Japanese concrete, this wall brings together different materials and techniques, giving the Daikanyama shop its own character.

The opening invitation also reflected the work of creating a shop in Japan. Shinsuke Koshio of SUNDAYVISION designed a card that looks like a white board when closed and opens outwards from the centre. A semicircle recalling Japan’s flag was paired with Yu Chikumidashi Mincho, based on metal type from the Taishō period, and Ikehara M, with roots in the Meiji era; the lettering was rendered in red and black foil. Cherry-blossom stamps were used for mailing. Even this small object, held in the hand before a visit, expressed an interest in the place where the shop was opening.