Barneys New York Route du Thé Fragrance Profile

At a glance

Route du Thé is the house fragrance that the New York department store Barneys introduced in 1986: a light citrus of lemon and lily of the valley over a clean amber.

It is a store fragrance rather than a designer launch, it has no credited perfumer, and the store that created it closed its American shops in 2020.

Creation and context

Barneys was founded in New York in 1923 by Barney Pressman. Wikipedia notes that it began as a men’s discount clothing store at Seventh Avenue and West 17th Street, and the Associated Press later described it as a store that “once reigned in the world of high fashion.” Fragrantica and Parfumo both date Route du Thé to 1986. Writing for Perfume-Smellin’ Things in 2011, a contributor who bought it in the 1980s notes that Basenotes gives the same year, recalls that the flagship was still on Seventh Avenue at 17th Street, and thinks it may have appeared a little earlier, around the spring of 1985.

Neither Fragrantica nor Parfumo names a perfumer, and no credit has been published. The same writer remembers it as the thing a young New Yorker could afford at Barneys when the clothes were out of reach, and describes it as an “anti-perfume” sold as a wear-anywhere scent years before CK One, in a decade dominated by Giorgio and Lagerfeld.

The name translates as “the tea route”, but neither database lists a tea note. Read it as an evocation of travel and freshness rather than a description of the formula.

The composition

The documented structure is short. Parfumo lists three notes, and the Perfume-Smellin’ Things review names the same three.

Parfumo classifies the scent as earthy and fresh, with citrus, aquatic and green accords, and its one detailed review calls it more aromatic than floral, soapy and clean in the drydown. The Perfume-Smellin’ Things writer sums it up as “basically lemon peel, lily of the valley and a clean, light amber.” It is a simple structure, and the simplicity is the point.

Why it matters

Route du Thé shows a fashion retailer selling a fragrance under its own name, as a product of the store rather than of a designer. It was sold as a wear-anywhere scent in 1986, eight years before CK One made shared fragrance a mass-market idea, and it was deliberately light in the decade that the Perfume-Smellin’ Things writer remembers for Giorgio and Lagerfeld.

It also sits outside the big perfume houses’ story of the fresh style. Tea itself became a modern perfume note with Bvlgari’s Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert in 1992; Route du Thé borrowed the idea of a tea route in its name several years earlier, without the note.

Reformulation and editions

Only one version is documented: an eau de toilette, which the Perfume-Smellin’ Things writer bought in 2011 as a 100 ml bottle. No reformulation history has been published, and because the formula belongs to a store rather than a perfume house, none is likely to appear.

The store’s own story affects availability. Barneys filed for bankruptcy in August 2019 and was bought by Authentic Brands Group for $271.4 million; NBC New York and the Associated Press reported that its remaining US stores would close on 23 February 2020. Wikipedia records that the name continues under licence, with stores in Japan. Parfumo lists Route du Thé as still in production, but that entry dates from 2012, so treat current availability as uncertain.

Wearing it today

Expect a clean lemon opening, a soft lily-of-the-valley heart and a faintly soapy amber finish, with moderate staying power. It is at its best on hot, humid days and as a splash after a shower.

Bottles now turn up mainly through resellers and decant sellers. Check the condition before you buy: a light citrus fragrance shows age quickly.

Related entries

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