Luxury fragrance brand Le Labo has opened its latest scent lab within a meticulously preserved machiya, a traditional Japanese wood townhouse, in Kyoto.
Inside the machiya, which dates back to 1879 and was once a sake brewery, the brand’s newest store is an ode to Japanese heritage and craftsmanship.
A look at Le Labo’s Kyoto Machiya Lab
From the floor to walls and framing, original features were preserved and infused with Le Labo’s utilitarian, vintage aesthetic and equipped for its slow perfumery needs.
The fragrance lab booth is crafted from Japanese reclaimed wood—in place of Le Labo’s signature distressed steel—while an original sink was repaired with new copper plumbing.
The second floor houses two traditional tatami rooms, one of which features a fragrance organ displaying hundreds of essential oils. The other chamber, built as an homage to Japanese know-how, operates as an open atelier to welcome local craftspeople and artists.
Kyoto Machiya Lab also boasts an onsite café, tucked in the house’s original garden, which offers a peaceful retreat for visitors with stones, restored statues, and native plants.
“Kyoto has long been a source of inspiration, connection, and embodiment of our deepest values,” says Deborah Royer, global brand president and creative director of Le Labo. “Its lineage of craft and preservation, of time-honored skills, are beacons for how we seek to pay tribute to the language of the senses from a place of greater consciousness.”
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