Smells In Color: An Evening with Bruno Fazzolari

While Tracy and I were speaking with Ralf Schwieger and François Duquesne before our November event, the subject of American perfumers came up. François described what I will refer to as the New American perfume movement (in order to distinguish it from older, more classically-oriented houses like Estée Lauder) as truly independent and artisanal. He proceeded to touch on a key element that separates New American perfumery from classical European perfumery: freedom from the rules and restrictions that have come to define the modern perfume industry. The resulting compositions are always interesting and sometimes utterly magnificent. Some of the most prominent New American perfumers are Josh Lobb of Slumberhouse, Mandy Aftel, Josh Meyer of Imaginary Authors and, of course, Bruno Fazzolari.