Interviews
Smelling Dante's Poem: Paolo Terenzi Presents V Canto
06/23/15 16:34:19
Atrbazan.com The Perfume Master
Tiziana and Paolo Terenzi at Pitti Fragranze 2014
I was very happy to see
Paolo Terenzi again this time in Esxence. We had met in Florence before and had a very nice chat, when he was
presenting his new line Giardino Benessere. But when I approached him and started talking, I noticed that the Giardino bottles were housing another line, called V Canto. So, what happened?
Miguel Matos: You are launching a new line, but I've seen these bottles before. In Florence, during the Pitti Fragranze expo, you were presenting Giardino Benessere in these bottles. Now the Giardino Benessere has a different, transparent bottle and the velvet bottles from before are now housing the new perfumes, V Canto. Can you explain this?
Paolo Terenzi: My concept for the Giardino Benessere brand was to create a radical niche brand with a nice price tag, easy and affordable for young people. It is something you can wear with ease and mix together. But when I presented it, I noticed that people were paying more attention to the bottle than to the juice inside. Then I saw I had made a mistake because the idea was to have plain and simple products. A lot of niche is about opulence and extremely expensive products. My idea was the opposite: easy to wear, mixable and playful scents. In Pitti Fragranze all the people were focusing on the packaging so I decided to stop it and go back to the original idea. I created these new bottles, plain, clean and transparent. Finally the line is complete.
MM: It took courage to go back after presenting it to the public. It was a risk, wasn't it?
PT: Yes, but I had to admit that I made a mistake. I believe that if you maintain your coherence within the project, the costumers will recognize it. People know. With that opulent packaging, I would have to change the juices. The velvet bottles went into another direction.
MM: And the same blue velvet bottles you had already produced were redirected into a whole new line that you are presenting now. Tell me about V Canto.
PT: I took the decision of using these bottles for another concept. The story is about Dante's
The Divine Comedy and the motto is “With love everything is possible.” In the V Canto, Dante writes about these two lovers that have an affair. Francesca was married to Paolo's brother but she was young at the time and she thinks she should have married Paolo, the man she loves. I created ten fragrances with words that match this poem. For example:
Irae (wrath),
Mea Culpa (the moment when the lady kisses the brother of her husband),
Mastin (the guy who owns the castle)... All the perfumes relate to parts of the poem.
Paolo and Francesca immortalized in Rodin's 'The Kiss'
MM: Let me ask you something that confused me. Giardino Benessere wasn't just six fragrances when you presented it for the first time. It was ten and I recognize some of them in the new V Canto. Mea Culpa was the Patchouli in Giardino (one of my favorites, by the way).
PT: Yes, because Giardino was too big for the line and some of them I transported into V Canto.
MM: I am smelling Irae and loving it. It has a good amount of carnation, right?
PT: Yes, but we don't list it because most people associate it with the cemetery, being a flower that is offered at the graves. Along with the carnation there's black pepper to freshen it up and cut the sweetness. I also like to use pink pepper from Brazil.
Irae is such a good fragrance that I have to single it out and review it. All the line has very well crafted fragrances, but this is the one I have chosen as my favourite. It's a virile carnation scent. A very strong and assertive one. Rather austere too. Cold at the beginning and warm at the end. Imagine a butch version of
L'Air du Temps and you might get it. It starts with a strong cold blast of black pepper. Irae doesn't fool you, it's spicy from top to bottom. Paolo says that most people stay away from carnation because of its association with funerals in Mediterranean countries such as his and mine. That's why carnation doesn't appear in the official pyramid. But don't let this stop you from smelling Irae. It's probably one of the best carnation perfumes I have ever smelled. It is elegant, strong, long-lasting and very empowering. It is like a strong statement. I see myself as an urban warrior when I wear it. And yet it manages to get the vintage vibe, too. Spices and woods with the flower as sovereign.
Adorning this composition there's a very well-balanced coriander note, making a good combination with artemisia and keeping it away from sweetness. There is an iron note in the list and I can only interpret it as aldehydes. It's a mineral/metal smell but this only confirms that carnation and aldehydes meke a great marriage. The base is an earthy wooden combination that grasps everything effectively. It lasts a long time and gets very warm on the skin. It's a man's scent, in my opinion. But then again, I still have to smell it on a woman.
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