Maria Teresa Venezia of In Fieri©

Profile: I am originally from a tiny town in the South of Italy, a wild, uncontaminated area surrounded by the Apennine mountains and two seas. A place rich in fragrant, beautiful flora that has adapted to survive in a very challenging environment. The majestic Bosnian pine (locally called Pino Loricato), sea daffodil flowers, marram grass, euphorbia plants, juniper, myrtle, mastic, fig and olive trees were always the background of our spring and summer vacations.  I always feel a magical sense of Amarcord when I smell these scents.

Maria Teresa Venezia of In Fieri as a young girl

As a kid, I was particularly drawn to very odd smells, smells that will travel deep in my mind inspiring surreal, fantastic stories. The musty smell of old books, the smell of wooden boxes hiding old letters and photographs. The camphoric smell of old, winter closets. The wooly smell of black vintage capes and coats, hiding long winters. The smell of fried chili peppers in the morning and volcano ashes in the evening. They represent memories in a memory for me. In fact, when I smell a piece of wood, I think about that old box, and the black and white photographs hidden inside.  Through that smell I start thinking about the people in the photograph, imaging their stories and their lives. It’s quite an amazing process!

Maria Teresa Venezia of In Fieri

With In Fieri, I wanted to create perfumes that could inspire stories, recall hidden emotions and memories, and speak freely to the mind, like a stream of consciousness, via free associations and sensory observations of smell, images, objects and colors. The name In Fieri is a Latin expression that means “beginning to have existence but not yet completely formed”, revealing the continuous research behind my products. It derives from the verb “fiō” that means “be made or become” for the handmade nature of my fragrances.

Raw materials Enrico Buccella

I have been very lucky to meet an amazing perfumer, Enrico Buccella, a wonderful mentor. After I met him, he spent years talking about his journey as a perfumer, his very first creations and experimentations with scents, sharing his knowledge about raw materials and how to source them. What really inspired me was his real passion and love for sharing his knowledge. I was able to travel in space and time just listening to his stories. I was visiting the Roman Empire, I was in an ancient naval battle, I could imagine the smell of old cities (that, by the way, didn’t smell so nicely). When I mentioned to him the idea of creating my first scent, which was Park of the Monsters, I started telling him what the Park meant to me and what the perfume should have conveyed. He listened so carefully, and he knew exactly what I was looking for and was able to help me creating an amazing scent that I cherish so much.

 

 

Maria Teresa Venezia at work

On being an American Perfumer: I moved to the United States about 10 years ago. The wild beauty of California immediately reminded me the place where I was from. When I first moved here, I found it hard to find artistic perfumes (probably because I didn’t know where to look). I missed my marine, sea inspired scents, that are so popular in Europe but were not so popular here. I started contacting perfumers in Italy  to collaborate with and try to bring here what I thought was missing. It was initially a difficult experience. Being new in this field was, and sometimes still is, overwhelming and quite intimidating. But I tried to stay positive until I found wonderful people that introduced me to the enchanting journey of perfume making. And that was the beginning of In Fieri.

 New York artist and sculptor Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) holds a model version of a mobile to be hung in the Arrivals Building of Idlewild International Airport, New York, New York, 1957. (Photo by Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

 

Favorite American Artist: I love art in all its forms, and have many favorite artists, but the one that I like the most is Alexander Calder. His art is meant to be enjoyed freely without any mental preconception, at a very primitive, instinctive level. I particularly enjoy his mobiles, as named by Marcel Duchamp. These suspended forms can move irregularly with air redefining the space around them. They are always refreshing and wonderful to look at. When asked to describe his art, specifically his mobiles, Calder replied “This has no utility and no meaning. It is simply beautiful. It has great emotional effect if you understand it. Of course, if it meant anything it would be easier to understand but it would not be worthwhile.”

And this is how I feel about art and the art of perfumery specifically.

-Maria Teresa Venezia, Founder of the brand In Fieri

 

In Fieri Park of the Monsters

Thanks to Maria Teresa Venezia of In Fieri, we have a draw for a registered user in the US for a 30 mL bottle of Park of the Monsters. To enter the draw, you must be a registered reader. Please leave a comment with what you found fascinating about Maria Teresa’s path to perfumery. Draw closes 6/6/2022

Maria Teresa Venezia of In Fieri is the 165th in our American Perfumer Series, which officially began with Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes on July 11, 2011

All photos belong to Maria Teresa Venezia unless otherwise noted.

Please like CaFleureBon Profiles in American Perfumery and your entry will count twice. Please leave that in your comment.

Editor’s note: In Fieri Park of the Monsters is a finalist to the 2022 Art and Olfaction Award in the Independent Category.

Notes include: lily, green notes, guaiac wood, incense, spicy notes, musk.

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