Just landed in Florence, nose up and ready to attend Pitti Fragranze 17

Whereas the first part of my report from Pitti Fragranze 17 focused on the show main theme, harmony as the purest form of beauty, and on the Maestro Jean-Claude Ellena, the second part is all about nosing around. Attending Pitti Fragranze 17 for two days only, it took me  a bit of time to figure things out since they changed the layout from past years. So I had limited time to properly browse through all the booths,  to talk to people and to  make new fragrant discoveries, and even less time at  to get around Florence to attend the various off-show events. I’m sure I missed many things worth smelling which luckily my fellow contributors will cover soon. Meanwhile I hope you will enjoy this report of Pitti Fragranze 17 report addressing emerging trends and some of my favorites.

 Hervé Gambs Tonka Majestic at Pitti Fragranze 17

The first trend  I spotted perfectly matchs the upcoming season and relates to a sweet departure from naïve sticky notes. Rather than playing the usual vanilla song, this grown-up gourmand plays the Tonka Swing for a new addition halfway crunchy praline and blonde tobacco. Hervé Gambs latest introduction Tonka Majestic with its boozy sillage of tonka bean sprinkled in cocoa powder over a mellow bed of resins is a great example. Food is not just food, it’s the result of thousand years traditions and has its own rituals. Sicily is famous for its religious celebrations mixing sacred and mundane: spontaneous and sincere yet deeply rooted in past cultures, this spirituality involves many senses too.

Antonio Alessandria Parfums Dies Auroræ at Pitti Fragranze 17

Mixing high-mass incense and burning candles under gloomy arcades with the typical treats made of mouthwatering hot caramel, almonds and pistachio, Antonio Alessandria Parfums Dies Auroræ conjures up this magic. Nomenclature NY, (which I had the chance to preview off-show), provided one more beautiful proof of sweetness engaging body and soul in a primal embrace. One of the first synthetics related to tonka bean brings perfumery to modern abstraction back in the XIX century;  coumarin, is the main component of Psy_cou. Perfumer Frank Voelkl tames the molecule’s almondy sugariness with the engaging hues of roasted coffee beans and saffron. The green, almost outdoorsy chill of cold spices blows on top a fresh-mown hay tinge. Burned as incense in sacred Ecuadorian ceremonies, creamy Palo Santo  are present here as well mystic vibes.

Nomenclature NY Psy_cou via Nomenclature NY

The more environmental crisis takes the stage thanks to many green activists like teenager Greta Thunberg, the more ecological awareness in fragrance seems to address the consumer choices. As pointed out in my report last spring, the Mending Broken Nature trend is a reply to the desire to regain contact with pristine nature thanks to wide use of coniferous resins like fir and cypress, green woods and aromatic herbs.  Hope, peace, elevated to a higher consciousness level. Some call it God, some  spirituality or knowledge and it’s all about harmony inside and out. Rising like a gold sun with green beams, Olivier Durbano latest introduction SpeM PetraM inspired by Mary Magdalene marries the lavish warmth of saffron and cinnamon with meditative incense and the evergreen serenity of fir balsam.

Olivier Durbano SpeM PetraM

The way up to purest air and uplifting landscapes, challenging themselves for a better living  is also the theme of Jul et Mad Stairway to Heaven.  While in Florence, Madalina Stoica told me climbing one of the highest mountain chains in the world, a nature’s sanctuary like the Annapurnas was such a unique life experience, they wanted to bottle it in a perfume. Perfumer Cécile Zarokian worked above all on the impression of cold, rarefied air filling your nose and giving that vertigo. What immediately strikes is the cold, almost metallic fizz of aldehydes ( I am smelling more and more in new perfumes ) and fruity citrus over a creamy, and powdery white musks base textured by the sweet flakes of heliotrope and iris.

Timothy Han Heart of Darkness

From the roof of the world to the thickest forests, the compassion for nature endangered by evil humankind can be sensed also in the moist jungle air blowigh through Timothy Han’s Heart of Darkness.  Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel, the fragrance is dipped in damp tropical greenery and ripe florals backed by a smoked urban vibe.
An emerging approach to perfumery is that of terroir. Remember Richard Lüscher Britos Terroir Perfumes pioneering this a few years ago? Owned by a Florentine family that moved to Açores islands to become winemakers, Aqua dos Açores ‘ aim is to distill terroir in perfumery and the true, wild spirit of the farthest corner of Europe. In house perfumer Alba Chiara De Vitis specially focuses on endemic species in Azul, a woody-aromatic sparkling fragrance infused with incense-like tinges of sage, bitter-green balsamic lentisk and the star natural, cryptomeria, a typical cypress specie from Açores with its waxy pepperiness.

Aqua dos Açores and Bravanariz booths

A strong, uncompromising connection with the terroir is what makes Spanish brand Bravanariz so unique. Inspired by founder Ernesto Collado Sala’s true love for his native Catalonia, the brand focuses on specific landscapes where plants and odorant materials are collected to distill limited edition olfactory snapshots called “camì” (path).  Each camì is then re balanced with the help of a perfumer yet respecting its true genius loci. The result is a 100% natural landscape perfume following such a radical approach that’s almost moves.  Their Bosc, a charming winter piney landscape with mushroom chypre undertones is a whiff of sincere air in a niche market more and more driven by market and sales rather than a vision. At  Pitti Fragranze 17 Mr. Collado Sala showed me three new limited editions: Essais, Fum, Pi and Illa capturing new landscapes. I was particularly intrigued though when he showed me his ongoing project, woody, piney cologne inspired by the old Spanish colognes his family used to sell.

 Prosody London booth

Another interesting entry enriching the natural perfumery offer is Prosody London, making sustainability their core tenet for products as cleaner as possible (organic raw materials, recycled and totally recyclable pack, etc…) . The result is a line of candles and well-structured soli-notes twisted by charming artistic touches. Their Lissom Linden with honeyed linden blossom and chamomile (another trendy note lately) brought my nose to a lovely trip through the alps in summer.

Stay tuned for the last part of my report featuring more highlights from Fragranze 17, trends, limited editions and exciting previews as well as later this evening for Lauryn’s review of one of my favorites. So leave a comment because you never know

Ermano Picco, Editor

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