Recently my fraghead friend Anne-Catherine and I visited the internationally acclaimed fragrance expo Pitti Fragranze in Florence.
Not only did we get to sniff our hearts out and discover hundreds of interesting fragrances, but we got to see fragrance critic and author Chandler Burr in discussion with world renown perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. These two talents probably don’t need an introduction to most in the fragrance community, but just to be sure I’ll give some context nevertheless. New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr wrote The Emperor of Scent, a delightful read to fragrance nerds such as ourselves exploring how French-Italian scientist Luca Turin birthed the theory of the functioning of the sense of smell. He also wrote the fascinating book The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York, describing i.e. Jean-Claude Ellena’s journey in creating Hermes’ Un Jardin sur le Nil (a garden on the Nile). After having read these books I was intrigued to see Burr interact with talented nose Ellena live in Florence, and intriguing it was, to say the least.
Knackered from the flight we checked into our Airbnb, a 3 minute walk from Pitti Fragranze, and went straight to the expo, where we quickly met some talented perfumers, company reps and owners. From Imaginary Authors’ wonderfully sweet owner and perfumer Josh Meyer to Dusita’s talented and lively Pissara Umavijani. Anne-Catherine had already met Pissara and her mom a while back at a perfumer course taught by Luca Turin in France, so after catching up at the opening event we had dinner with Pissara and her right-hand François in a delicious, authentic Italian restaurant around the corner called Trattoria Baldini.
Following Pissara’s excellent suggestion to try the porcini pasta we ended day 1 and headed back to the airbnb with satisfied bellies and fatigued noses. We returned to the event the following 2 days (after having locked ourselves out of the apartment and fearing the intervention of said lock-out would render us too broke for any new purchases) and explored the city at night.
But enough with the vacation stories and back to the sniffing part. The first booth that drew our attention was Agatho Parfum, a startup brand with the most expensive looking bottles you’ll ever see.
The exquisite bottles with ceramic and gold details and packaging that looks like a piece of art in its own right not only look stunning, but the juice inside is actually amazing as well. We both fell head over heels in love with Rossopompeiano, and liked pretty much all their other releases too. Expecting these bottles to cost over 1000 euros we were pleasantly surprised when we heard they could be purchased for standard niche fragrance prices. The only downside was they weren’t sold anywhere in Firenze, and aren’t available in Western Europe just yet. The creation of the brand was inspired by art made in ancient Pompeii. Agatho is said to have created ointments for the Roman Empire’s aristocracy, which would make him the first master perfumer.
Mendittorosa is another line with stunning, original bottles and an interesting backstory that had already caught my attention after seeing Peter from FragranceView’s positive review on Rituale (and when Peter likes something you can rest assured it’ll be gooood). There are some exquisite creations in this line, all made with passion, love, and heaps of creativity. Founder Stefania Squeglia, a cat loving redhead with style to spare, indulged us with the stories and inspiration behind each fragrance.
We were both disappointed and pleased to find out we wouldn’t be able to buy anything at this fair for industry professional after all. Disappointed cos “duh”, but also pleased since we wouldn’t be returning to Belgium completely bankrupt after all. We decided we’d each buy maximum 1 fragrance, so on the last night of our trip we did make a trip to Olfattorio Bar à Parfums right by the Ponte Vecchio. Anne-Catherine bought Miller Harris’ Leather Rouge, and I got myself BDK’s Smoking Rouge, a unique smokey cherry delight.
Instagram story Pitti Fragranze 2019
