Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story of Nez begins in the mid‑2010s, when three Paris‑based professionals saw a gap in how the perfume world communicated beyond product launches. Jeanne Doré, a veteran editorial director, Dominique Brunel, who had spent a decade running the niche retailer Auparfum, and Mathieu Chevara, a visual artist turned business developer, joined forces in 2016. Their first public statement described Nez as an "olfactory cultural movement" that would bring writers, curators and creators together around scent. The inaugural issue of Nez magazine arrived later that year, offering long‑form essays, interviews and photography that explored niche perfumery without commercial pressure. In 2018 the team expanded the publication model, releasing a bilingual edition for the United States market; the boutique Fumerie announced it would stock translated copies, marking Nez's first foothold outside Europe. Two years later, Nez launched its first fragrance collaboration, Ambre à Lèvres, created with perfumer Mathilde Bijaoui and produced in a limited run of 500 bottles. The project demonstrated the collective’s willingness to translate editorial insight into olfactory form. By 2021 Nez had added a quarterly digital supplement, hosted pop‑up scent salons in Paris and New York, and partnered with independent perfume houses for the 1+1 Limited Edition series, which paired established scents with new reinterpretations. Throughout its first decade, Nez has remained a non‑profit‑oriented platform, funding its activities through modest sales of books, limited‑edition bottles and event tickets, while keeping the core magazine free. The organization celebrated its ten‑year anniversary in 2026 with a retrospective exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, showcasing original manuscripts, prototype bottles and video interviews that trace its evolution from a niche idea to a recognized cultural node in the fragrance community. Nez approaches scent as a language rather than a commodity. Its founders articulated a belief that fragrance should be discussed with the same rigor as visual art or literature. The collective therefore prioritises research, narrative context and interdisciplinary dialogue. Each publication invites contributors from anthropology, design and music to examine how smell shapes memory, identity and place. In practice, Nez selects collaborators who share a curiosity about the sensory world; perfumers are asked to explain the story behind each note, while writers frame the fragrance within cultural movements. The group also emphasizes accessibility: by offering the magazine for free and translating it into English, Nez seeks to lower barriers for readers outside traditional perfume circles. Sustainability informs its ethos as well; Nez prefers partners who source ingredients responsibly and who disclose production methods. The collective’s events, from scent‑focused talks to immersive installations, aim to foster community rather than drive sales. This philosophy manifests in the way Nez curates its limited‑edition releases: the scent is presented as a chapter in a larger narrative, accompanied by essays and visual material that together invite the audience to explore the olfactory experience from multiple angles.