The ninth Esxence perfumery exhibition has ended in Milan. There are two main ones in the year - this Milanese and also the Florentine Pitti Fragranze. They are, of course, competitors, but both have approximately equal fans. Someone says that Pitti is more about business and deals - a show for distributors, but Esxence is more like a gathering of talents and their fans. Others do not like to travel to Milan: expensive, gray, all too fashionable and on their own mind. Small and cozy Florence is another matter - the hearty warmth of Tuscany is nearby, and even boutiques of important local brands like Salvatore Ferragamo look like wine cellars. But Esxence has a calendar handicap: it takes place in March, and Pitti- in September, and most new launches occur in the spring. In short, it is an eternal dispute, like the competition between the Medici and Sforza.
This year, as in the past, Esxence took place outside the Milan boulevard ring - in the Porta Nuova area. The title doesn't lie: really very new. So new that it is not yet in most guidebooks, and the concierge of my hotel has never heard of the fresh exhibition area The Mall, "The focus of Milanese futuristic glamor" (quote from the home site). Finding the required area in the backyard of the map, he clucked his tongue: far! a taxi is badly needed! It turned out - less than half an hour on foot from the center, during which, however, I saw a change in all climatic zones, as when climbing Kilimanjaro. The multicolored windows of the Fashion Square were quickly replaced by the impenetrable windows of consulates and banks on Via Filippo Turati - the temperature seemed to have dropped a couple of degrees. And beyond the boulevard ring life, at least on foot, ended altogether, and the skyscrapers of the Porta Nuova area stretched into the sky. The Mall - a slap of concrete and glass with a grassy roof - hid between them. A crowd buzzed at the entrance in a cloud of cigarette smoke: I noticed the owner of the Jovoy perfume chainFrançois Henin, perfumer Antonio Gardoni and familiar ambergris miners. However, the latter, more accustomed to long marathons on chilly Irish beaches than to the heat of the exhibition spotlights, did not smoke, but simply cooled off on the street.
© facebook.com/Esxence
This year, two atmospheric fronts collided at Esxence - young (both under 35, babies by the standards of the profession) and highly sought-after perfumers Cecile Zarokian and Luca Maffei. Each has a dozen launches (Maffei seems to have more). It can be seen that the iron is forged while it is hot: Cecile Zarokian, for example, made a fragrance for the tiny brands Naso di Raza and Sabé Masson - the latter is generally known for exceptionally solid perfumes in frivolous boxes.
Sabé Masson © facebook.com/sabemassonparis
Luca Maffei gave birth to countless lush bouquets, but most of all I liked his lilac for Jacques Fath - by the way, when he arrives in Moscow, it will be inexpensive. His rival Cecile Zarokian has grown several gorgeous tuberoses. Tuberose was generally the ruler of Pitti: thick and dark in Evody, with pepper and tropical fruits in E. Coudray, sweet and populist in Jul et Mad, with mimosa in Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger.
Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger © lafleuroranger.com
In this duopoly, other launches have gotten a bit lost, like Jul et Mad's Fugit Amor by Stephanie Bakush, author of the devastating Invasion Barbare for MDCI Parfums. The latter is already 12 years old, during which almost nothing was heard about Stephanie. And here it is - again crushing, anise and carnation, carved in marble. A little forgotten about everyone's favorites Masque Milano, although the champagne at the stand of the brand gushed with a fountain, and the new launches were very good: the sedative Mandala drove incense smoke, and Times Square smelled of oiled popcorn, exhaust fumes and cheap lipstick - New York of the 1980s.
Masque Milano fragrance collection © masquemilano.com
Speaking of incense, the main ingredient last year that turned Pitti into a convention: it's all out. Nobody wants to make church scents anymore - except for the belated Masque Milano and Unum, the brand of Filippo Sorcinelli, who, among other things, makes cassocks for the popes. What will happen at Pitti in September? "Green smells - says Spyros Drosopulos perfumer brand Baruti. - that's what Pantone tells us. ">