Leslie Friedman — E-JOURNAL — EARNESTLY HUNTING

Leslie Friedman, Store Manager at Claus Porto, New York.

Our olfactory senses conjure the most vivid memories.

The strangest smells bring me back to very specific times -- New York’s Penn Station (pre-construction time) reminds me of being pregnant with my first daughter and waddling my way through to work (and fighting morning sickness -- which turns out isn’t only a morning time thing -- it’s an all day long thing) or whenever I get a whiff of something that I can’t quite put my finger on but reminds me of the corridors of my university dorm and being carefree. Yeah, weird.

These random olfactory examples are one of the reasons why I love hunting for fragrances. The obscure with a far-reaching past are the ones I enjoy discovering the most -- Santa Maria Novella, Guerlain, Penhaligon’s, Acqua di Parma are a few and a very special one among this echelon of scents is Claus Porto.

Founded in 1887, Claus Porto was originally named Claus & Schweder by Ferdinand Claus and Georges Schweder, two German fellows living in Porto, Portugal. In 1908, Achilles de Brito, becomes a business partner and eventually merges Claus & Schweder into his company, Ach Brito. Today, still family-owned and led, Claus Porto is in its fourth generation and marked its first international brick-and-mortar entry in 2018 in none other than New York, New York.

The store is a visual feast. While the term ‘architecture’ refers to the exterior of a structure, in this case, it most certainly can refer to the interior. It’s a wonderful mix of modern shapes framing a heritage brand. Upon entering the store, you’re taken on a historical tour -- jewel-like perfume bottles and packaging from the archives on the right, a photographic tour of Claus Porto’s history on the left and then you enter the warmly lit and inviting space where all your dreams of soaps, lotions and fragrances come true.

It’s here in Nolita, at 230 Elizabeth Street, where I met the gracious and deeply knowledgeable Store Manager, Leslie Friedman. I learned that the soaps are still hand-wrapped with papers designed in-house -- they are a work of art. We geek out on our professional experiences in the fragrance and beauty industry. I walk out many moments later with a sizable credit card charge of products that I had to have and with an interview date to learn more about Leslie and Claus Porto.

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Tell me about you.

I’m originally from Los Angeles and moved to Brooklyn to go to Pratt Institute. I graduated with a BFA -- I studied jewelry design, fashion and art history. I’m very much about looking through the lens of how we interact with what we wear and visuals.

While at school, I worked part-time for Karen Tappin and her company, Karen’s Body Beautiful -- she made everything from scratch, by hand. Karen was an elementary school teacher and she had a soap making hobby on the side. She wanted to make things that were healthier and more natural. She was on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn where Carol’s Daughter was, too, which was a like minded brand. There was this movement that we deserve healthier options and we can make them ourselves. It was really great to work with a female business owner. Karen taught me so much -- I learned about essential oils and making skincare -- I sold things that I helped make.

After graduation, I did jewelry production with an independent designer in Brooklyn. I also worked with Alexis Bittar. I was able to work with a lot of designers such as Shana Tabor of In God We Trust and Nora Kogan of St. Kilda, who were both Brooklyn-based, who took pride in craftsmanship, and whose products were made in the US. They all had strong brands with a real story.

After traveling a bit, I returned to New York and found a posting on Craigslist for a position at Aesop. This was 2013. They had a small presence in the States. They had five locations in New York and now it’s probably 11 or 12. After working in jewelry for a bit, I found this to be an interesting opportunity to venture back to skincare. I missed it and appreciated the holistic aspect of retail -- going a little more away from the decorative material sense and a little more into how we can conserve our bodies, minds and senses in a different way. I took a review of my previous parameters and Aesop wasn’t female owned, it wasn’t US-based! It was, however, a small business that was trying to build up in a new market. I was drawn to this and it was outside of my comfort zone -- it was more corporate, more serious and as an Australian-based brand it had a more European vibe. They, historically, did not pay for advertising. They would do product placements and partnerships but the rest was all word of mouth. They talked about customer service and it is really the center of what they do. This is why I was able to justify breaking my original parameters to work there. I had an amazing experience at Aesop and left after many years to work at Le Labo before I came to Claus Porto.

How did the opportunity at Claus Porto come about?

The architect for several of the Aesop New York stores is Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox Architecture. He also did the Claus Porto store. The store has won innumerable awards. Jeremy knew that I was seeking a new opportunity and a few months later I received a call from Ricardo Cunha-Vaz, Chairman of Claus Porto and met with him in Spring of 2019. It was love at first meeting. I could tell by his enthusiasm, kindness and passion for what he was doing that this brand was going to be a fit for me. My first day was July 1st of this year [2019].

Tell me about the Claus Porto customer. When I talk with my circle of friends they recognize the beautiful packaging but not the name.

With a brand like this, storytelling is so important. This brand has a longstanding heritage and legacy. It’s been in business, continuously, for 132 years. They only just opened their first brick-and-mortar in Porto, Portugal a few years ago [2017]. Before, you could find them in pharmacies, online and gift shops -- the designs and the scents are memorable. The people who love it are loyal and look forward to buying it for themselves and gifting Claus Porto. After a feature in Oprah, the brand’s distribution became even more widespread through its partnership with Lafco. Claus Porto decided to take back the reins and take a different approach with the company. Opening a brick-and-mortar store was really interesting especially how retail was trending. This store, on Elizabeth Street, is its first US store and they opened it [October 2018] not too long after its first store in Portugal.

Between Aesop, Le Labo and now Claus Porto, you’re well-versed in this neighborhood. All these stores are across from each other on Elizabeth Street. Tell me what you think as to why Claus Porto chose this location.

New York, to me, is very much the center of the universe. I don’t ever question when someone wants to open a store here. The owners and leaders of Claus Porto are very present, very engaged, very in-touch with their company and stores. This wasn’t a “here are the keys and good luck”. We’re very connected and all at the table -- Anne-Margreet Honing, who is our Creative Director in Amsterdam, our team in Portugal, Jeremy from Tacklebox and me in New York and Lyn Harris, our perfumer --exchanging ideas and very much caring about the success of this [New York] location. It’s not a tourist destination. It’s a very specific street. It’s quiet. You’re not going to be bombarded. It certainly gets busy and packed. People want to be here for a specific reason -- it has a wonderful history. It’s a nice attitude of community on this block and that’s one of the biggest reasons why this street is special. This street is a great location to test the market and experiment. There is a nice exchange with other store managers. We’re really happy to help each other and share feedback and resources.

Claus Porto’s decision to break into the US market in this neighborhood, which is hyper-niche, is a bold decision. It speaks to their strong history in design and craft. It makes sense why they would want to open their first US store on this street.

Tell me about this stunning space.

It’s representative of what I just talked about. This store is absolutely true to the roots of Claus Porto. It has a long history with graphic design, craftsmanship and relationships with designers and craftsmen -- partnering with Jeremy is an example of that, having this specific stone from Portugal from a specific quarry brought over here, the lighting by Loop Lighting Architects -- all of these things speak to the level of detail and passion there is for all these elements and how they come together.

This space is an amazing opportunity to have a platform of reaching more creative communities and inviting them into the space to talk about a variety of things -- maybe it’s fragrance, craftsmanship, design -- of course, yes, we’re selling products, we’re not hiding that but there’s a wonderful opportunity to use this store as a platform to continue to enlighten people about Claus Porto’s history.

In this day and age of technology and Amazon and new and newer, tell me how technology impacts Claus Porto. When you come into a store like this it doesn’t strike a customer that this brand has been around since 1887.

Each of our stores have a designated space that you walk through. It’s beautiful. It’s like a gallery that holds actual, physical Claus Porto artifacts in its display. Very few stores have this breadth of actual items available to share with customers in their stores. There are also archives and portraits about our founders. It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the store. We’re vocal about the year we were founded and that we’re still here. To me, it’s an example of how good design and good craftsmanship lasts. That you don’t have to do everything differently from when you started at the turn of the century to still be good. Our soaps are still hand-wrapped and hand-sealed. For our Agua de Colonia collection Lyn Harris and Anne-Margreet went on a road trip as part of the design process to relaunch the fragrances and even went through the archives to find examples of building numbers from the Art Deco period in Portugal which inspired the type for the packaging.

I was struck by your deep product knowledge when I first came to shop here. I never met a store manager who could not only speak to the products she carried in the store but also the history of the brand, the birth of this store and the excitement of Claus Porto’s future. You’re an exception. And they’re based in Portugal -- it’s a long distance working relationship.

I’m really specific about who and what brands I want to work for, I just wouldn’t work for anyone, it has to be something I am genuinely interested in and want to invest my time in. Even though Claus Porto has been around for a long time, it’s brand new in this market from a physical aspect and its special. What’s great is that everyone cares deeply -- there’s empathy, support and everyone often asks if there’s anything else they can provide to help me. I recently spoke with Anne-Margreet, our Creative Director -- she’s awesome. She has lived in New York for quite a few years and is now based in Amsterdam. So while Claus Porto may be new to the area, Anne-Margreet really understands the vibe and has a good grasp of New York and Brooklyn. Claus Porto is a brand that doesn’t strive to be cool -- cool is hollow. There’s a lot of depth and density to Claus Porto’s history and it’s about translating it and making it relevant to New York -- how to tell the same story but telling it in a way locals can appreciate. The brand isn’t going anywhere. It stands on its own two feet. It’s not about putting on a different mask to blend in or camouflage for a different market -- it’s an opportunity to look at what we’re already doing and different ways to share those strong roots. We can try something new and experiment and still be true to our history.