Eau de Composition: Pitti Fragranze Celebrates Scent as High Art
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n mid-September, Florence’s Stazione Leopolda became a perfumed amphitheater. Sunlight spilled through its glass vaults as tastemakers moved between booths like guests in a sensory cathedral. The 23rd edition of Pitti Fragranze, held September 12–14, 2025, embraced “Composition” as its central theme. A meditation on harmony and balance. With over 230 brands, nearly three-quarters international, the fair offered a curated journey through olfactory notes and advanced skincare, where beauty met science.
SETCHU
Special Guest Satoshi Kuwata, winner of the 2023 LVMH Prize, unveiled his brand SETCHU’s first perfume collection. Long known for fusing East and West in fashion, Kuwata translated that dialogue into scent. Created with perfumer Julie Massé, five fragrances were revealed: Monday 9 AM – Genmaicha (toasted rice green tea), Wednesday 5 PM – Yuzu (crisp citrus), Thursday 1 PM – Ayu (a river fish evoking summer), Friday 2 AM – Tatami (the home’s rush mat), and Saturday 9 AM – Hinoki Buro (a cleansing cypress bath).
Each perfume, Kuwata explained, captures
“the profound scent that accompanies us in rituals of care. Fresh, crystalline, intimate.”
Packaging echoed Japanese tea chests: minimalist cubes, precious in their restraint. Displayed with geometric precision, the collection blurred lines between art installation and perfume altar, confirming SETCHU as a bridge between cultures.
Soul & Skin
For the first time, Pitti introduced Soul & Skin, a pavilion devoted entirely to skincare. Golden architectural details framed minimalist stands, elevating creams, serums, and oils into objects of art. Exhibitors ranged from Susanne Kaufmann to Augustinus Bader, presenting innovations from marine-collagen masks to probiotic oils.
The curatorial intent was clear: skincare, like fragrance, is no longer mere utility but a ritual of luxury. Bottles of pearl glass and sculptural droppers became talismans of beauty, their design carrying as much weight as their formula. Soul & Skin distilled the notion that caring for one’s face and body is both science and performance. An extension of identity.
Meo Fusciuni: A Perfumer’s Autobiography
Meo Fusciuni provided Fragranze’s most poetic moments. The Sicilian perfumer launched Isola, a fragrance evoking suspended summer melancholy, alongside a reinterpreted edition of his debut Nota di Viaggio – Rites de Passage. Both works echoed the fair’s theme of linking past and present.
On September 12, Fusciuni premiered Memorie Olfattive, a documentary at Cinema La Compagnia. The film traced his journey from Sicily to international acclaim, portraying him as “not just a nose, but a storyteller whose work fuses chemistry, anthropology, and poetry.” Archival footage and luminous cinematography framed fragrance as autobiography. Speaking after the screening,
Fusciuni reflected: “We need real stories. Beauty that comes with vulnerability. And if every fragrance tells us who we are, this film tells where I come from and why I still search.”
Packaging and Presentation as Statements
At Fragranze, every detail was orchestrated as part of the composition. SETCHU’s cube boxes referenced Japanese ritual, their minimalism a cultural bridge. Soul & Skin’s golden outlines framed skincare as alchemical luxury. Booths glowed with amber light, marble plinths, and silk drapery, demonstrating that packaging has become modern heraldry. In today’s luxury market, the way a bottle feels in the hand or glitters on a table speaks as loudly as its formula.
Fragrance and Skincare as Identity
By the fair’s close, one theme emerged: perfume and skincare are not simply beauty products but identity markers. For high society, they function as subtle heraldry. A nostalgic woody amber signals heritage; a sharp citrus, modern vitality. A cutting-edge cream tells as much about its wearer as a bespoke suit.
Pitti Fragranze 2025 embodied this ethos. Under the banner of Composition, each fragrance, serum, and installation formed part of a greater aesthetic whole. For a weekend, Florence became a living still life, its air a tapestry of scents and textures. In this rarified world, fragrance and skincare have become more than adornments, they are declarations of being, status whispered in the language of the senses.
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