In the fragrance industry, the term “nose” refers to a true olfactory genius— someone who creates masterpieces with scent as Mozart did with sound or Monet did with color. Historically, most “noses” were men—specifically, French men— until Italian perfumer Laura Tonatto began creating scents twenty years ago.
At just twenty-three years old, Tonatto became an underground phenomenon in Italy by creating personal fragrances for celebrities, like designer Giorgio Armani and singer Ornella Vanoni. Since then, she has become the perfumer of choice for a host of unorthodox clients: Rolls Royce hired her to classify "the smell of luxury"; Monte Grappa asked her to perfume the inks in their celebrated fountain pens, and British bookstore chain, Waterstones, invited her to re-create famous aromas from literary classics, such as the memory-evoking madeleine cookie in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. Tonatto's eponymous collection of fifteen award-winning fragrances has just come to the United States, and is being sold exclusively at Barney's department stores.
"Perfume insiders call Tonatto 'The Italian Nose' because she adds an Italian dimension to everything she creates," says Aimee Majoros, a New York-based perfume expert. "I wore her perfume Dama in a little store in Greenwich Village, and the Italian shopkeeper said, 'What are you wearing? You smell like my home!'"
So what exactly does Italy smell like? "Fior d'arancio was inspired by the springtime orange blossoms in Sicily," explains Tonatto. "Renaissance paintings also inspire me; Dama is the ultimate Renaissance courtesan—it has soft opoponax, amber and Florentine iris."
Bowing to her Renaissance muses, Tonatto even created an "olfactory installation" for a Caravaggio exhibit last year in St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. "I spent three years studying Caravaggio's The Lute Player with Italian art historian Alessandra Marini," Tonatto explains. "The final scent for the exhibition, appropriately called 'Caravaggio,' captured what the lute player might have smelled as he posed: flowers in the vase (iris, daisy, jasmine, orange leaves, wild briar and damask rose); fruit on the table (figs, plums and pears); the wooden lute, and even the painter's supplies. It's really a new way to experience art."
