Naples by Gallivant collage by Michelyn

 

Naples is the latest destination for Nick Steward’s award-winning Gallivant line of wanderlust city-inspired perfumes. It is also his first visit to Italy, and he has chosen one of the country’s most rambunctious and electrifying cities. Naples is a city lit by God’s luminescence; its sins washed clean by the sea. A vital working port, the city is watched over by Vesuvius, the slumbering volcano that destroyed nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum. The last major eruption was in 1944 but active volcanoes only sleep; all those that live near them are aware of their dormant power.

 

Nick Steward  of Gallivant

Naples is Nick’s first post-covid perfume. Perfumery, like everything else was seriously dented by the pandemic, one of the main symptoms of the coronavirus was the loss of taste and smell. Even in recovery some people have struggled to recover their senses, questioning whether what they are smelling is reality or in fact their inbuilt memory of reality. Is this genuinely tuberose I am inhaling or am I just imposing my memories of it to fill in any olfactory gaps? Mask wearing has also affected us; we have all become acutely more aware of our exhalations and the very act of breathing itself. How many of find ecstasy in the peeling and tearing off masks when we are no longer around others or don’t need to wear them?

Alley in Naples

Perfumery is back cautiously; people will always want to smell good. Post covid retail is undeniably different and navigation for consumers and brands alike seems tinged with delicacy and difficulty. But real stories and concise elegant perfumery welcoming customers with precision materials, these things win out. Nick and his beautiful Gallivant line have done this from the start. His years of experience in the business, most notably at L’Artisan Parfumeur have created in him an innate understanding not only of beautiful scent storytelling, but also of niche reach, knowing how to make a perfume, a bottle, a concept that will simply click with us. He has always been a jet setter in his own fabulous way, one of those people who genuinely adore travel. He has been all over the globe and this is exquisitely reflected in the Gallivant collection. So far, we have visited Amsterdam, Tokyo, Brooklyn, Bukhara, London, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Los Angeles.  

Luca Maffei – perfumer in his lab, Italy

Now we go to Naples. After the spectacular iris work by Ralf Schweiger on Bukhara, Nick has turned to Italian perfume superstar Luca Maffei to create Naples. It seems I have been writing on Luca’s work for years. He is quite simply a phenomenon. I knew it when I wrote about the extraordinary Ragù he made for Gabriella Chieffo, a savoury musing on lazy family Mediterranean Sundays, slow cooking tomatoes with anisic herbs in whitewashed kitchens. Then Architepo for Mendittoroso, his gorgeous work for Jul et Mad, my beloved L’Attesa by Masque Milano and MyLo for Laboratorio Olfattivo. Luca’s work at its best is bright, sophisticated and brimming with vitality, encapsulating the uniquely Italian sprezzatura take on life. Sprezzatura is one of those words that other languages have that are tricky to fully translate as they are about mood and a certain attitude to life. I guess it’s about nonchalance, a feigned insouciance whilst really being aware of one’s presence and effect.

New flacon

Nick Steward is a stylish man, always impeccably turned out in a very understated way. He has transferred this neatness and pared down style to Gallivant. Every detail of the line is immaculate, from the matchbook style samples, monogrammed tissued paper, embossed cards to the beautifully updated packaging with copper printed sleeves and sexy new bottle caps that suggest marble and polished stone. In a scented world of shouting bravado, sometimes it helps to be the restrained graceful one. Naples is a sublime love letter to a magical city. The historic centre of Naples has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, such is its cultural importance, but Naples is a working-class city, its history tied to its port and the multifarious, multicultural threads of life that ports weave through cities. Religion and the many Neapolitan churches have played a huge part in the evolution of the city. In September there is the extraordinary spectacle of the St Januarius ceremony where relics of the saint are bought together, including a vial of his solidified blood. If it liquifies during the fervid rites, all will be well. If not. Well, who knows?

God and the sea, salt and smoke. These things mingle in Naples by Gallivant, Luca’s beautiful composition with swirling dolce vita, sensual cool shadows and irresistible charm. The collision of salted air laced with algae-stained stone with the woosh of church doors opening on interiors woody with shimmering light and snuffed out candles makes Naples quite the experience. It settles into something insistently bright and flirtatious and by that I mean a perfume that woos the senses, paying scented compliments in this case a delightful mix of juicy ginger, pink pepper and ozonic notes. Generic on paper perhaps, but in Luca’s experienced hands and wrapped in sea salt and a dynamic piquant bridge of (appropriately enough) Calabrian bergamot these notes smell surprisingly textured and big. The bergamot connects the sea-washed opening to the more studied and elusive fumy interior of Naples. The effusive oceanics don’t exactly vanish, but they are absorbed into the smoky heart of Naples and with touches of cardamom, nutmeg and the resinous echo of labdanum the salted air and scent of harbour becomes a strange briny prayer, rising gently up in cool empty rooms. The ending of Naples by Gallivant is one of calm. Luca has used Clearwood, increasingly used by perfumers to infuse a glassy green patchouli note to compositions. I always think it smells wet, not damp but glittering, clean wet.  It is patchouli without the mulch and dank. Some birch, vetiver and amber all add a delicate woodsy verdancy to the base after the amazing sea top notes and the burnt incense of the central section.

Working with these themes and materials and creating something so elegant and wearable, mixing mainstream accessible beauty with niche storytelling eccentricity is something both Nick and Luca are familiar with and do so well. It is a testament to Nick that each of his olfactory destinations has been beautifully captured in subtle polaroid ways, as opposed to overt obvious influencer ways. We all visit cities and leave with different impressions. Naples by Gallivant perfume will be the same. Sea, God, salt, citrus, noise, contemplation, shadow, light and life. Such a beautiful scent. Ben fatto ragazzi.

–The Silver Fox, Guest Contributor and Fragrance Foundation Awardee

Disclosure The Silver Fox received a sample for this review and his opinions are his won

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All photos from Nick unless otherwise specified

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