MADISON SQUARE PARK BODY SILK

Is it Uptown? No - too quirky to be Uptown. So it must be Downtown? No again - though it has an unmistakable hipster vibe. Sandwiched between the two, it's not Midtown, either. Formerly a grungy, nameless no-man's land that flanks Koreatown to the north and the Flatiron District to the south, Madison Square Park and enviorns have recently emerged as a chic, trendy, young enclave - worthy of a Bond No. 9 eau de parfum. Here, tony new restaurants, penthouse bars, boutiques and boutique hotels mingle with the Asian bodywork salons and countless costume jewelry wholesalers and the manicure joints that dot the neighborhood.

The park known as Madison Square (named for the
president and principal author of the U.S. Constitution) is at the junction where Fifth Avenue and Broadway momentarily converge as they head downtown, only to be separated by the prow of the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street. In the mid-19th century, as the opulent Gilded Age got under way, the surrounding streets grew lush and residential.  Lavish Beaux Arts- and Rococo-style grand hotels and retail emporiums arose.  This was Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Wharton territory. Herman Melville wrote Billy Budd on East 26th Street. The grid of streets around Madison Square Park became Manhattan’s hotspot.  Fast-forward to 2011, and now again, this is the place to be.

Naturally, we at Bond No. 9 had to give this vivacious neighborhood its own vivacious eau de parfum. Madison Square Park is an arresting, super-bright melange of romantic florals and crisp greens. Starting with springtime top notes - intoxicating, musk-like grape hyacinth paired with tangy huckleberry and delicately spicy prairie dropseed grass - the scent soon segues into a heart of voluptuous red leaf rose, traveling with its sidekick, Red Hunter tulip. And for its finale, these lush and vibrant florals at last give way to calmer, deeper, darker teakwood and vetiver root.