Last week, Italian fragrance exhibition event Esxence teamed up with the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) to bring a special showcase to New York City! Held in the sunny One World Observatory downtown, the chic occasion found 20 niche Italian fragrance brands displaying their latest innovative, luxe scents for VIP guests to discover. While on-site, we caught up with Esxence’s president and co-founder Maurizio Cavezzali to discuss all things fragrance, bringing Italian scents to NYC, and more.
Tell us how Esxence started in Italy, and why you brought the event to New York?
We have an event in Milan that is in its 16th edition this year, named Esxence. For me, it was very important to have a start here in New York, because I think that the niche fragrance market is very important in the future for the United States. Fragrances are a part of our soul. It’s very important to understand how the public, the clients of perfumery products, can receive this kind of image. The niche is something different. We have the gross market. We also have luxury, but the niche is a research market very near to the image of the people. Unique perfume is the best and most important luxury product in the world now.
Why is fragrance such an important beauty category?
We started 20 years ago, and nobody wore very [much] perfume. Now, everybody in your life, if you go in the streets in New York, the people behind you are full of perfume. It’s a part of us. It’s very important for the future; people don’t want any more sneakers, cars, or watches. Perfume is also a part of life; it’s the smell you have in front of the other people.
What are some “hidden gem” or cult-favorite Italian fragrance brands that you hope people will discover?
Today, we have part of the niche perfume sector that is the Italian brands. We have only 20 brands here—that is only a taste for the people, a trial situation. If the market in New York—and for this reason, also in the United States—can say “yes,” we’ll go on and next year, we can make a big event here to express the world and the market of niche fragrances.
How did you work with the Italian Trade Agency to put today’s event together?
The Italian Trade Agency is really, really professional. It is unique, and they get better and better. They are fantastic. They are young, they are professional, and they understood very well the situation of the niche market. They were with us, with the first edition, 20 years ago, and we grew up with them together.
Tell us about the experiential fragrance section of the event.
This is the most important thing I have to tell you. If you want to understand the niche fragrance market, you need to study and have culture. We have a great, great school of fragrances, the Italian Perfumery Institute. It is a great school of fragrances. The niche experience of fragrance is very important, because everybody wants to understand which kinds of different flowers or different fragrances for the niche market are, all over the world. You cannot understand perfume only by itself. You need to understand the materials that produce fragrance. In the United States, we wanted to introduce the culture and the study of the fragrances.
What’s the greatest difference between the Italian and American fragrance markets?
Perfume, a long time ago, started from Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance period. In the Renaissance, we started with the fragrances, and afterwards there was a diffusion in France—and then, all over Europe and the United States. Fragrances are very, very old memories of Italy. We are more mature in the market. We know the fragrances very well, and the people and perfumes themselves are at the top level. Now, we are at the top in Italy, but now the fashion is down. We are at the top here in United States. Americans use luxury brands like Chanel, Hermès, or “low”—that means basic perfumes. Now, they are starting to understand the niche perfume market. I promise you, there will be an explosion for the American market. I think in two or three years, you will have a lot of people that can understand the niche market very well.
All images: Gerardo Somoza
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