Pitti Fragranze 2019: Countdown

Stazione Leopolda shall soon open its doors for the 17th edition of Pitti Fragranze, 13-15th September 2019!

Need I say that I booked my special little apartment in Florence immediately after Esxence? I did…

I also talked recently with quite a few friends from Fragcomm – sadly, many gave up coming to Florence this year, which saddens me even more because Pitti and Esxence ARE the only places where we manage to gather, coming from all over the world. I’m still hoping some will change their minds: Florence is always a good idea! We had a great time at Pitti last year, and everyone did manage to find some new perfumes to love.

You can find my 2018 “People of Pitti” reports here, and here.

I won’t elaborately compare Esxence and Pitti here and now – let’s just say that Esxence 2019 was truly overwhelming, I wrote 4 blog entries about it – Inspiration Flow – Esxence Milan 2019, Veni, vidi…amavi: Esxence – The Scent of Excellence 2019 – Part I, Ave Perfumes! Esxence 2019 – Part II, and Act III: Events&Extras @Esxence 2019.

I’ll just repeat some Pitti numbers from 2018 for you: around 2150 buyers, arriving from more than 50 countries. Yes, Pitti seems to be more B2B oriented. 190 Maisons and brands (including skincare and cosmetics)- 70% not from Italy. Around 1450 registered buyers from Italy. In order to register as press, you must submit your previous coverage of the fair…fair enough. Pitti is not open to the general public.

Esxence, on the other hand, broke all the records this year with 6000 m2 of exhibition space, 7890 guests, and 221 brands.

This year’s Pitti exhibitors list is not closed yet, but I did notice some big distributors and very dear brands missing (like Kaon, or Calé/Silvio Levi for example) – you can check the current exhibitors’ list here.

Division of exhibition space is the same as the last year: newer brands/artisan/niche are placed in the “Spring” section, larger distributors are to be found in “Classico” section.

I also noticed a lesser number of events outside Stazione Leopoldi this year too – listed in “La Citta delle Fragranze” events list, but there are still some attention-worthy venues planned in museums, historic buildings, perfume boutiques, and gourmet venues.

The concept of this year’s exhibition is described as follows:

“The unveiling is essential for beauty, preventing its undressing and unveiling. The impossibility of unveiling beauty is its nature.” – Walter Benjamin

The new edition of Pitti Fragranze is represented by an image presenting the duality of beauty and art:

“Beauty – as a harmonious element, a dynamic and changeable reality, in which we must learn to be and move.”

In contact with skin, blending with skin:

What was the tipping point for me to decide to attend this year? I’m an eternal optimist, so let’s try to take a look from the bright side: a retrospective and presence of Jean Claude Ellena, to start with!

Jean Claude Ellena will be the special guest of this edition of Pitti Fragranze, discussing his olfactory works between 1976 and 2017 with Chandler Burr (swoon):

Can’t wait to ask him about his new creation for Frederic Malle too! (I hope my sample of Rose & Cuir will arrive by then)

Every year Pitti focuses on one raw material: this year during RAW, we’ll learn more about wood and about its role in many perfumer creations (presentation by MANE). I’m looking forward to this, as well as Atelier Parfumèide workshop “Olfactory Analysis and Olfactory Design: Natural extracts and aromachemicals” – these learning opportunities are so valuable! Here are the brands that shall present a fragrance dedicated to Wood.

Something else I don’t want to miss: Museo Villoresi, Via de’Bardi 12. Last year, while visiting, Mr. Lorenzo Villoresi announced that we shall see each other next year in his museum.

He showed us his beautiful gardens overlooking Arno, talked about raw materials, plans for the museum – in my opinion, this is a place every perfume lover should definitely plan to visit when in Florence if you want not only to visit this glorious villa but also to learn about raw materials. I couldn’t get my hands off this bowl with Orris roots:

Perfumes? Well, it certainly seems that I’ll have enough time to cover the whole exhibition this time, something I failed to do at Esxence. There are some new launches announced, a couple of brands I still need to get to know and explore, meet and greet with dear friends from the perfume world – this being really the best part of any fair.

New perfumes to keep an eye on (in alphabetic order, I will add more as I receive information):
– 27_87 – Sonar
– Acampora Profumi – well, that’s breaking news! They will present 9 new perfumes, a complete line created by Miguel Matos (I wrote about his Jungle Jezebel/Sarah Baker Perfumes here)!
– Fiori Del Male – Gourmand 1
– Francesca Bianchi – a new perfume! (she’s not saying much yet, not even to me, all we know is that she got blisters on her hands from packing samples!).

Update:

– Acqua dos Azores launch is announced

– Oliver Durbano: a new fragrance launch

– Antonio Alessandria: Dies Aurorae launch

I shall also check out Mendittorosa new Talento again, Ineke, Timothy Han (again, yes), Viadeimille Sicilia, Zero Molecole, D.S.&Durga, etc, and drop by and hug dear Pissara/Dusita, Oliver Durbano, and many other friends – Florence provides such a beautiful setting for having a drink or dinner together, chatting about perfumes, getting to know each other better…

More perfumes? I’m sure I’ll have enough material to write about and bring closer to you, and at least one to fall in love with.

Follow me here, and on IG: the_plum_girl, or Twitter: @DPlumGirl – I’ll try to report live as much as my phone battery and WiFi hotspots can endure.

The Plum Girl
Elena Cvjetkovic

Photos: The Plum Girl, Pitti Fragranze