History of the house
Bond No. 9 was founded in 2003 in New York (United States) by Laurice Rahmé, a French executive who had lived in Manhattan since the 1980s. The name of the house comes from the address of its first studio and original boutique, located at 9 Bond Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Before launching Bond No. 9, Laurice Rahmé led the American subsidiaries of Lancôme and then Annick Goutal, where she became familiar with the codes of French niche perfumery.
The editorial project was defined from day one in 2003, with a first collection of sixteen perfumes. Each composition is paired with a New York neighborhood or a landmark of the city. This olfactive map of New York produced compositions that became iconic for the house, including Nuits de Noho, New Haarlem and Madison Soirée, all released the same year.
The visual signature is a round flacon topped with a six-point star, declined in a different color palette for each perfume. This bottle, designed from the start, became an immediate retail landmark and a full part of the brand identity. Through the 2010s, the house opened several additional addresses across Manhattan and structured a selective distribution network in the United States, with department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, before expanding internationally.
Bond No. 9 also collected industry recognitions. The house won two FiFi Awards in 2009 (Brooklyn for men and Astor Place for women, in the Fragrance of the Year category), then the FiFi Award Perfume Extraordinaire in 2012 for New York Oud, composed by Aurélien Guichard. The house remains owned and led by its founder, which sets it apart from several American niche houses acquired by major luxury groups during the same decade.
Notable perfumes
The Bond No. 9 catalogue now numbers more than sixty compositions, organized around the New York neighborhood map and a series of thematic collections. Below are eight notable releases, verified across Fragrantica, Parfumo and the official site of the house.
| Year | Perfume | Perfumer | Olfactive family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Nuits de Noho | Robertet | Amber oriental |
| 2003 | New Haarlem | Maurice Roucel | Gourmand coffee |
| 2003 | Madison Soirée | Robertet | Floral |
| 2004 | Wall Street | David Apel | Aquatic citrus |
| 2005 | Chinatown | Aurélien Guichard | Floral oriental |
| 2005 | Bleecker Street | David Apel | Woody oriental |
| 2007 | Andy Warhol Silver Factory | Aurélien Guichard | Woody floral musk |
| 2012 | New York Oud | Aurélien Guichard | Oud oriental |
Olfactive signature
Bond No. 9 does not defend a single olfactive accord. The house is recognized instead by its editorial approach, translating a New York neighborhood into a composition, and by deliberate material choices that often favor gourmand, opulent floral or resolutely woody readings. Chinatown is built around peach blossom, neroli and sandalwood. New Haarlem leans on coffee, patchouli and vanilla. New York Oud is structured around oud and rose. Each perfume aims to tell a place rather than to extend a uniform house signature.
This deliberate diversity explains the use of several perfumers and composition houses. Bond No. 9 has worked with Aurélien Guichard (then at Givaudan, later at Takasago), Maurice Roucel at Symrise, David Apel at Symrise and the composition house Robertet. The plurality of signatures shows in the palette, which covers floral oriental, gourmand coffee and contemporary oud readings.
Bond No. 9 mapped New York in bottles. Every perfume is an address, every address a story.