NOUVEAU BOWERY

Before the Bowery was the Bowery, it was the Indians’ expedition route to Peter Stuyvesant’s bouwerij (or farm).  But New York’s streets are forever changing.  During the American Revolution, this avenue, the scene of skirmishes, was the only access route from the sea.  By the late 18th century, it had become a fashionable, mansion-lined promenade.  By the 1860s, it was transformed into a warehouse and beer-garden district. From there, the Bowery took its plunge into Skid Row--a street of flophouses and five-cent whiskey saloons. Eventually, restaurant equipment and lighting stores moved in.  In1973, CBGB arrived, soon to become the capital of underground rock & roll. 
Today, as artifacts of another era, at least one hotel (the Pioneer) remains, along with a handful of derelicts.   But the still-disheveled Bowery is once again in flux.  An NYU dorm has opened here.  The high-tech Remote Lounge operates next door to the mellow Pan-Asian restaurant Daily Chow, which is across the street from the contemporary Spanish restaurant, Sala, which is up the street from
Rafē, a chic handbag store. 

There's a certain low-key man or woman, who doesn't necessarily live anywhere near the Bowery, but relishes its antiestablishment atmosphere. This contrarian likes to be inconspicuous fashion-wise and accessory wise. He or she is an anti-fragrance type...but one who just might respond to an anti-scent scent.

Nouveau Bowery is such a fragrance. It doesn't smell like perfume. It's an almost acerbic anti-perfume - with lime, basil and thyme. Even the flowers in it - wild lily and violet wood - and the supposedly soothing base notes - patchouli, oakmoss and vetiver - are dissonant. How enticing to an anti-fragrance type, determined to go against the grain.