Nicolaï Paris Enters Neiman Marcus; de Nicolaï to Win Award

By Daniel Okafor

Nicolaï Paris will enter Neiman Marcus in the U.S. this fall, and Patricia de Nicolaï will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual niche perfume convention ScentXplore on Nov. 7.

Neiman Marcus is the family-operated brand’s second U.S. department-store retailer; Nicolaï Paris also sells at Printemps. The self-funded label sells in retail doors across more than 85 countries and runs 11 owned boutiques. Patricia de Nicolaï and her husband, Jean-Louis Michau, launched the label in 1989 after strong corporate creation guidelines frustrated her and pushed her toward full creative control. It is one of the earliest perfumer-led labels.

Patricia de Nicolaï is a perfumer (the creative specialist who composes fragrance) and the great-granddaughter of Guerlain founder Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain. She grew up in Paris immersed in the house’s world, despite the family’s distance from its management.

De Nicolaï said, “My link to the Guerlain family comes from women, and the company was run by men; my grandmother and mother never worked in the company,” describing a family connection without corporate roles. She also remembered: “It was everywhere — [my family] used it in the house, on their skin, perfumes — it was impossible to smell something different from other brands.”

She did not always know fragrance would define her career. Nearly 40 years on, the founder still sets the creative standard: “I wanted to make elegant, rich perfumes,” she said.

Her uncle, Jean-Jacques Guerlain, opened ISIPCA in Versailles in 1970. De Nicolaï attended the perfumery, cosmetics and food-flavor formulation school shortly after opening and graduated from it. She later worked as a perfumer at Florasynth and Quest International, now part of Givaudan.

Corporate creation rules frustrated her. De Nicolaï recalled “big companies with very strong guidelines on creation,” and said Jean-Louis Michau proposed, “why don’t we launch our own brand?”

She wanted “to put the role of the perfumer in the forefront, which was important to me because at the end of the ’80s, early ’90s, the perfumer was somebody nobody knew, and it was something I wanted to change.”

Her argument has gained ground. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, fragrance interest surged; brands now increasingly advertise the perfumer behind each scent. Sephora added the perfumer-focused Anecdotes by Artists to its assortment this summer.

Edwige Michau de Nicolaï, who serves as co-chief executive officer with brother Axel, described Patricia’s carte blanche (unrestricted authority) over raw materials (fragrance ingredients). She laughed: “Patricia has full creativity; she has carte blanche for the raw material she uses. She does what she wants, and actually, even if we try to ask for something, she does the opposite.”

International demand is rising, according to Nicolaï Paris. The U.S. accounts for 50% of the brand’s direct-to-consumer (DTC, sales made directly to consumers) business. The Middle East is its number-one market, followed by Asia.

Edwige said, “For the past two years, we’ve invested a lot in marketing; making the packaging better, making the retail experience a bit better,” adding that Nicolaï Paris has also doubled down on Instagram. It now has just under 60,000 followers there. She added: “In French we say the heart of the business is to be able to communicate a clear brand image, and this is the change we’ve done.”

Four best-sellers from the range—Ambre Cashmere, Baïkal Leather, Bois Bélize and Patchouli—cost $115 for 30 ml. and $265 for 100 ml.

What does the Neiman Marcus entry change for U.S. shoppers?

For U.S. shoppers, the change is broader physical distribution: Neiman Marcus will stock Nicolaï Paris this fall, adding a second U.S. department-store channel alongside existing Printemps sales. The announcement specifies no launch products or price changes.

Patricia de Nicolaï develops all of the brand’s fragrances in-house (inside the company) at her Paris laboratory, a tradition she hopes to continue. She said, “My dream is that one of my eight grandchildren will be a perfumer, and if God gives me a long life, I will be there to train him or her.”

Edwige said, “We grew up with Guerlain as an ideal,” then continued: “To build the company and give it to our children in the next generations is our ideal and our dream.”

The Neiman Marcus launch will test whether this self-funded family label can widen U.S. distribution while keeping fragrance creation in-house and preparing a possible perfumer among the founder’s eight grandchildren.