New York City’s The Standard High Line hotel is turning its sexy origins into a sophisticated new scent. Libertine hotel guests famously got nude and even copulated in front of floor-to-ceiling windows at the luxury Meatpacking District hideaway after it opened in 2009, in full view of passerby below. Now, that cheeky sense of mischief has been bottled in a bold new fragrance, aptly titled “Glass House,”Maxim can exclusively reveal.
For those curious about whether the scent lives up to the eye-catching hype, consider the answer a resounding yes. Springing from “the collision of grooming and hospitality, confidence, and voyeurism” is the new fragrance, with an enticing blend of pink grapefruit, warm suede and crushed mint.
The cologne was developed to evoke “the pulse of a night that lingers, the charged energy of connection ,and the quiet confidence of being looked at.” And yes, The Standard’s jaw-dropping windows and views are as prominent as ever. As for the new scent, it’s now available online at Blind Barber, at The Standard’s online shop and the hotel itself.
Like Blind Barber’s penchant for expert haircuts, the same sentiment is echoed in the new fragrance, said Blind Barber co-founder Jeff Laub, noting that a sense of confidence and curiosity has guided the company’s ethos, not unlike the High Line hotel. “The Standard carries that same unapologetic energy. Those windows, that design… it’s all about letting the world see you exactly as you are,” Laub tells Maxim.
“We both flipped our industries in our own ways,” Laub said of Blind Barber and The Standard High Line, noting that “we turned the barbershop into a cultural hub and brand, The Standard turned hospitality into an experience, even flipping their logo upside down as a reminder to see things differently.”
The fragrance bottle incorporates Blind Barber’s scent expertise as well as The Standard’s signature branding, and the transparent vessel seeks to reflect “the bottled-up sweat within,” the companies said. And since The Standard’s infamous windows are nothing if not head-turning, each collectible box comes with a sultry campaign image.
Laub noted that Glass House “is where those worlds meet,” with scent notes and a look and feel he says are “meant to embolden, to seduce, and to remind you that the best nights are the ones where you let yourself be seen.”
IFF’s Headspace technology lends itself to what the duo calls an “authentic sweat accord,” while ambroxan and blackcurrant bud are also featured prominently. Priced at $98, the Blind Barber x The Standard Glass House Fragrance is meant to be as daring as a night at The Standard itself.
