Summer must be here: we’ve cast off our opaques (boy, that took a while), switched to a lighter scent (or seven) – and Avery Perfumery‘s back with a pop-up at the Basics Store on Redchurch Street, in too-cool-for-school Shoreditch, showcasing many of its indie perfume houses, which are becoming increasingly widely known.
The man behind Avery, though, is less famous: Celso Fadelli, whose Intertrade Group has become one of the trendsetters of the contemporary perfume world, through a portfolio that includes Agonist, The Fragrance Kitchen,(watch this space for more about them imminently), ROADS, Andrea Maack, Boadicea the Victorious and more, more, more.
These fragrance names can be found in the best perfumeries – but also in Avery concept stores or departments in London (Avery Row, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges Oxford Street‘s new Fragrance & Candle Space), in Florence, Beverly Hills, Modena, Casablanca, Moscow, Doha and beyond, part of a rapid expansion worldwide.
Among the highlights of the perfume calendar, for us, are Intertrade’s UNSCENT installations at Pitti Fragranze – Florence’s indie perfume show (September), which for two days is open to the public – and the trade show Xscence in Milan (March). Marrying fragrance with sculpture, artisan glass and conceptual art, they’re always a thought-provoking, fascinating immersion in their perfumed collective.
It was at UNSCENT that we caught up with Celso Fadelli (below) – and, because learning someone’s five favourite smells tells us a lot about a person, found out more about this ‘secret’ powerhouse of the perfume world.
1. Pizza – the whole package: the tomatoes, the mozzarella, that amazing magical alchemy of cheese, vegetables and bread. I love buying pizza from street food sellers, but the best I ever ate was in the Gennaro restaurant in Naples.
2. Strawberry – I am more a salty person than a sweet one; I don’t like chocolate and vanilla, in fragrance or food – and a good sandwich does it for me more than croissants. But a good strawberry is so wonderfully fragrant…
3. Clean sheets – just-washed laundry, not the scent of fabric conditioner but the smell of real cleanliness, with its feeling of whiteness and purity. It’s bad for the environment but I secretly think it would be wonderful to have clean sheets every day. Who needs a Rolls Royce…? That’s my idea of luxury.
4. Fresh bread – is that too many food smells…? I can’t help it; I grew up in Venice and food is very important to us.
5. The forest – that combination of wood, leaves, earth; a ‘dry’ forest (I’m not so keen on the scent of a forest after the rain), and I prefer a mixed forest with oak and deciduous trees to a pine forest.
Find the Avery Perfumery pop-up at The Basics Store, 42 Redchurch Street, London E7 7DB
www.averyperfumegallery.com
Written by Jo Fairley
