Marc-Antoine Barrois and his pioneering “green perfumery” opened doors to the flagship location in New York earlier this year.
When Marc-Antoine Barrois learned that he was an “unconscious witness” of the drastic decrease in insect populations in France, he began to question everything that he was complicit in. It was in 2018, when Barrois learned that, in the thirty years since the early 1990s, insect populations had decreased by 80%. In a conversation between Barrois and Mission Magazine, he says, “I started my environmental journey after realizing in 2018 that I could drive hundreds of miles without finding a single dead mosquito on my windscreen, while remembering childhood memories of my sister and I cleaning my father’s car after summer holidays, completely covered with insects. I began questioning what I was doing and how I could improve it.”
This precise moment was the impetus for the brand’s shift to eco-friendly practices. Barrois became a pioneer for respectful perfumery, officially joining the world of “green beauty” in 2019. Now, in the new Marc-Antoine Barrois flagship store in SoHo, New York, he is promoting what it means to be an eco-conscious brand.
“I created the brand Marc-Antoine Barrois to offer exceptional, sincere, and respectful creations.”
The new launch of B87.135 Extrait, a collaboration between Marc-Antoine Barrois alongside perfumer Quentin Bisch, exemplifies the brand’s commitment to the environment. In 2020, the brand made the decision to officially eliminate the use of preservatives and UV filters including BHT. These UV filters are added systemically to perfumes, so the choice to remove these potential endocrine disrupters was not an easy one. This move was made following the success of perfume B683, the first collaboration between Barrois and Bisch. In brainstorming their second perfume together, which would become Ganymede, Barrois realized that he didn’t need to compromise his values to create products he loved.
Marc-Antoine Barrois says, “I created the brand Marc-Antoine Barrois to offer exceptional, sincere, and respectful creations,” and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing. In the realm of his brand, he says, the tailor-made, hand-crafted couture is “certainly the most environmentally friendly part of my work: it encourages people to buy less, but better.” These products are crafted in Paris, with fabrics traveling mostly through ground transportation to reduce their carbon footprint. Barrois says, “I simply practice [the pillars of Haute Couture] as it was before the invention of ready-to-wear, with my own creative vision.”
His advice to consumers is to make sure you’re only buying what you need, and thinking through the real cost of the items you are buying. He goes on to say, “We all need to learn to buy less, to repair, or to invest in better quality…That €5 T-shirt may represent €5 in money, but also perhaps €25 of underage labour, €25 of river pollution in Southeast Asia, €15 of ocean noise contributing to the death of cetaceans, and €30 of carbon emissions. Understanding this may encourage its owner to value it as they would a €120 T-shirt, rather than buying more simply because it is cheap.”
“I often say that this is not about being perfect from the start – what matters is to begin. I immediately removed plastic wrapping from my packaging and looked for a local French supplier, whereas I had previously been sourcing it from China via a German company.”
But this advice doesn’t come as a cast of judgment. Barrois maintains that we cannot perfectly fight environmental catastrophe right from the beginning. “I often say that this is not about being perfect from the start – what matters is to begin. I immediately removed plastic wrapping from my packaging and looked for a local French supplier, whereas I had previously been sourcing it from China via a German company. We replaced plastic foam with a recycled black cardboard wedge, and this was only the beginning. I felt a sense of pride in improving things year after year.”
Barrois goes on to add,“I am not saying that we have a positive carbon footprint – we are still far from it – but we produce 100% locally, without preservatives or UV filters. I also try to educate my teams: for example, we replaced daily plastic bottles with filtered tap water in glass bottles. I have also banned any recreational use of AI (personally, I do not use it at all). We are conscious of our impact and are constantly working to reduce it.”
With Barrois’ fundamental values of service, quality, and creativity, incorporating environmentally conscious practices does not hinder the work from the brand, Marc-Antoine Barrois. The store opened earlier in April 2026 and stands for these pillars of value and sustainability.
Marc-Antoine Barrois, 120 Wooster Street, Nyc, Ny, 10012. All images courtesy of Marc-Antoine Barrois. Photography by Julien Thige.
