Pitti Fragranze - new trends

The most important innovation of this year was the change of location, and while the Stazione Leopolda is a fascinating, roomy place (exhibitors rose from 110 to 160), the charm of the Gardens of Palazzo Corsini was a little bit missing. But since summer showers are romantic only if you can enjoy them in the countryside, the new location avoided us getting completely wet as in previous years (and that was certainly good). Moreover, substituting the bucolic location with a more "professional" one has brought a quantum leap in the event. Pitti Immagine Fragranze is a special occasion for many reasons. Firts, rarely you're allowed to try all the fragrances in a brand. And if you ask, only at he Olfattorio Bar à Parfum you are allowed to do it (and without faces).
Instead, smelling all the scents in a brand is important because it helps you understand what's the brand like, you feel if there’s an aesthetic vision behind it and what it’s like, and this is fundamental to understanding individual scents, as inclusions in the general framework. It’s also necessary to emphasize that in recent years, the niche has become very attractive and a lot of new brands are born, or reborn, just to place products in the "top" segment of the market. But in the meantime, young perfumers have grown, there is more awareness among the public ... and in the long run people start to understand the difference between art and crap. Pitti Fragranze is an occasion to gain a general idea of the direction taken by the selective or "niche" perfumery, since you can highlight trends, what can we expect in the near future. I got the idea that it will be more and more about natural raw materials, precisely because recent IFRA indications exclude several of the best, and thus they are becoming increasingly “exclusive”. There are composers who create on their own behalf (that is, who put their face and name on their perfumes) and they have volumes of sales allowing them to buy the best naturals without fainting, while others have exclusivity in the brand’s DNA (The Different Company, Amouage, just to name the very first coming to my mind) and I think that only these two categories of perfumers will continue to use expensive and beautiful naturals. If other brands will head for unbridled creativity, with exploits of extraordinary originality, design and craftsmanship, fat years are awaiting everyone and I’m excited with anticipation... otherwise, brands which can’t count on a strong vision with creative and original ideas, nor on adequate investment, could be destined to disappear within a few years.

Before going to Florence I made a list of novelties I wanted to try (find it here). The one that struck me most was Oriental Lounge by The Different Company. Celine Ellena did a terrific job with a theme, oriental, tricky because well known and much explored before. Her result is not the opulent and exotic atmosphere of the East (as a place "other" from here) but the objects of the East: stained portals, scrolls with stylized, colourful graphics. Very charming, well done, knitted thigh enough not to be unable to perceive the passage between accords, with a wonderful, subtle and warm spicy note that I don’t recognize, that binds the whole composition.

Then I liked the four fragrances by Laboratorio Olfattivo (Daimiris by Pierre Guillaume, Cozumel and Alkemi by Marie Duchene -author of Casta Diva and Patchouli from Nobile1942 line- and Alambar), especially Daimiris and Cozumel. The first is a creamy, delicate iris, with soothing accents of leather and liqueur, the second is slightly spicy, soft leather, with a translucent base that made me sigh. The line is sophisticated, but a “modern” imprint is quite marked. Bravo!

I also liked the new Amouage, Epic, a mix pepper/incense/vanilla maybe not so original, but remarkable. The balance of spicy/sweet is always on the cutting edge, and only in the final vanilla/benzoin takes over, but discreetly. On this occasion, I rediscovered the entire Amouage line. Although the bodied notes, beautiful naturals and complex compositions had me intrigued right away, I'd stopped to the opulent wealth of the line, and I got them all together. Instead I could spend some time with each of them separately and I must admit that my admiration for this brand has grown. For example, I reassessed Gold, I finally realized that two years ago I hadn’t understood it at all; it seemed to me a huge bouquet of flowers and spices cacophonous and badly organized, and instead this time I first tried it a couple of times on mouillette and only after on the skin, so when it unfolded the parade of colorful flowers, I felt trumpets, but also velvets (I know, there’s no musical instrument made of velvet, but if there were, that would be the image), and I was mesmerized. I could resmell Reflection, which I find exceptionally refined, poetic in the female version and balsamic, vigorous in the male. Veeery nice to wear.

I couldn’t test El Oud by L'Artisan Parfumeur because the 30ml tester was too soon over, and the new Havana Vanille I liked... so so. An unusual liquorous, smoky vanilla, where the gourmand side isn’t given by vanilla itself, but by rum and cocoa, and therefore avoiding any meringue effect (we're still talking about Duchafour!). It reminded me of the smell of Austrian Mozartkugeln. I will test it again, because it’s undoubtedly original, even if the line’s Vanilia was already enough for me, (and I’m happy I found at least one Duchafour’s I don’t actually LOVE). This year, oud was the big thing, oud was everywhere (even Comptoir Sud Pacifique released four oud scents!). May be 2010 will be the orange blossom year?