Business Notes SCENTS

Socialites who feel insecure shopping anywhere but at the most exclusive salons may want to consult the opinion of an unexpected new arbiter: U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet. Last week the Manhattan-based judge named the 55 classiest retail stores in the U.S. He compiled the list as a way of enforcing a November trademark-infringement ruling in which he prohibited the toniest U.S. stores from selling Elizabeth Taylor's new fragrance, called Passion (price: $165 per oz. of perfume). Sweet had ruled that the upper-crust marketplace already belonged to an older Passion ($270), which the French firm Annick Goutal has marketed in the U.S. since 1981.

Some shoppers will be startled by Sweet's roster: it fails to mention Bloomingdale's or Neiman-Marcus but includes such lesser knowns as Maas Bros. in Florida and Razook's in Connecticut.