Neeche Haute Parfumerie: São Paulo’s Perfume Gallery

We pursue perfume’s essence, unconcerned with being masculine or feminine: simply a scent that pleases and makes us happy.
Evelyse Britto

Bottles placed one by one in wall recesses, and display stands that look like fragments of columns. At Neeche Haute Parfumerie in São Paulo, perfume can be contemplated as a work of art. The space grew from an ambition to bring Brazil more than a collection of distinctive fragrances: a place to understand and savour each one.

Contents

How the shops began
1. A place for Brazil to discover niche perfume
2. Displaying bottles among columns and wall niches
The thinking behind the shops
Shops to visit
1. Iguatemi São Paulo
2. JK Iguatemi
References

How the shops began

A place for Brazil to discover niche perfume

Neeche began in Bogotá, Colombia, in December 2018. The following year, in June 2019, its first Brazilian shop opened at Shopping Iguatemi in São Paulo.

The person who brought Neeche to Brazil was Evelyse Britto, co-director of Prestige Cosméticos, a distributor of imported perfumes and cosmetics. Britto had been researching niche brands in Europe. While perfume houses were looking to enter Brazil, there were few retail spaces that understood their character and could present them properly. What was needed went beyond a shelf for new products: a dedicated space that could explain the differences between fragrances and introduce people to their worlds.

Displaying bottles among columns and wall niches

The first shop was designed by the architecture practice Estúdio Tupi. Its starting point was the word niche, from which Neeche takes its name. Two meanings came together in a single shop: a specialised corner of the market, and an architectural recess made to hold an object.

Taking its cue from the Ionic columns of ancient Greece, the design extends vertical grooves across the walls, with small transparent shelves set between them. Column-shaped display stands of varying heights rise from the floor. Large columns and small perfume bottles face one another, bringing the bottles’ outlines and colours into focus. One person even called to ask who had made the concrete columns. In fact, they were made of plaster.

Estúdio Carlos Fortes, responsible for the lighting, combined diffuse light that envelops the interior, focused light that picks out the bottles, backlighting that reveals the transparency of the glass, and light that casts shadows within the wall niches. Rather than illuminating the whole room uniformly, the scheme gives the space and the objects on display distinct roles.

Illustration of Neeche’s Iguatemi Faria Lima interior, with perfume bottles displayed in vertical wall niches and on freestanding column-shaped stands. — The Iguatemi Faria Lima shop’s 2019 interior (illustration)

Less than a year after opening, the physical shop was forced to close during the pandemic. Neeche developed its relationship with customers online, maintaining contact while they could not visit. In July 2023, it opened at JK Iguatemi, also in São Paulo, extending its presence in the city.

The thinking behind the shops

At Neeche, the setting for the bottles is paired with personal advice that helps visitors get to know the fragrances. Britto summed up the experience she wanted for the shop in a few words.

The idea is to savour perfume in the shop.
Evelyse Britto

Specialist staff help each customer find something to suit their taste among fragrances selected from different houses. Where does a perfume’s value lie? For Britto, the answer is in its contents and the way they are made.

A perfume’s greatest value lies in its essence and how that essence is made.
Evelyse Britto

The current selection includes Parfums de Marly, Initio, Maison Crivelli and Matière Première, alongside perfumes by Bvlgari and Tom Ford. This is a specialist shop introducing fragrances from different creators, rather than a space devoted to a single brand’s aesthetic. Attention to both the bottles at the centre of the displays and the fragrances within them underpins Neeche’s approach.

Shops to visit

Iguatemi São Paulo

The Iguatemi São Paulo shop is the place to begin for a sense of Neeche’s Brazilian origins. Beyond the space itself, conversation is central to choosing a fragrance here. Olfactory consultant Fábio Navarro, who has more than 20 years of industry experience, offers individual, face-to-face consultations. He listens to each person’s preferences, style and life story to help them find a fragrance that expresses who they are.

From the many bottles lining the walls, the search narrows towards a fragrance for one person. The display of perfume becomes part of a conversation about the individual.

JK Iguatemi

The JK Iguatemi shop opened with a dedicated space for luxury cosmetics alongside its perfumes. Using the same visual vocabulary of vertical wall niches and freestanding display stands, it brings fragrance and beauty together under one roof. Individual guidance from specialist staff is another part of the experience.

Neeche now also has shops at Iguatemi Alphaville and in the Beauty Area at Cidade Matarazzo. At Guarulhos Airport, it has a shop in the domestic departures terminal in partnership with Dufry. From city boutiques to a stop along a journey, these spaces offer more ways to encounter perfume in and around São Paulo.