MILAN — After taking on the Caruso restaurant nestled in Milan’s Golden Triangle for a short lived café last yr, Italian fragrance house Acqua di Parma is to copy the experiential format by establishing a short lived dining kiosk in the town’s central Via Palestro, next to Casa Cipriani.

The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-controlled company will run Acqua di Parma Il Chioschetto from May 11 to 21 to mark the launch of its latest limited-edition fragrance Arancia La Spugnatura, which is a component of its Blu Mediterraneo collection of scents.

Drawing inspiration from the Sicilian origins of its star ingredient, the Arancia Vaniglia orange, harvested in the town of Ribera, the kiosk shall be themed after the Italian island, offering local delicacies from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., encompassing breakfasts, lunches and aperitivos.

Along with drinks and a special Arancia Vaniglia-flavored ice cream, a bespoke menu curated by renowned Sicilian chef Filippo La Mantia will echo the olfactory notes included within the scent.

Created by master perfumer François Demachy, the fragrance features top notes corresponding to mandarin and citrus, a heart of bitter almond and black pepper and a woody base including cedarwood and musk.

The important thing feature of the scent is the normal sponging technique “La Spugnatura” deployed within the manufacturing process. Generally used for bergamot, the manual extraction procedure is performed by few artisans in Italy, who’ve been involved by Acqua di Parma as a part of the corporate’s ongoing mission of preserving and enhancing traditional and beneficial techniques.

Particularly, within the sponging extraction, artisans cut each fruit in two equal halves and use a special utensil to separate the skin from the pulp, before rubbing and pressing the orange peel on sea sponges, which absorb all of the essence. In the ultimate phase, they squeeze the sponges with precise movements right into a terracotta container to gather the citrusy elixir, while the opposite parts of the fruit are repurposed in order to not generate any waste.

Retailing at 165 euros for the 100-ml size, the Arancia La Spugnatura fragrance is available in a home made porcelain bottle in Blu Mediterraneo’s signature shade of blue, capped off by an identical lid and embellished with white, orange and golden motifs inspired by the ingredients within the perfume. A label constituted of scrap powder from marble quarries finish off the flacon, while Acqua di Parma’s distinctive cylindrical box that makes for the brand’s secondary packaging is constituted of FSC-certified paper.

To enable visitors to find the craftsmanship behind the scent, a series of open-to-public experiences shall be offered upon pre-booking and registration on the Acqua di Parma kiosk. These will include “The Art of Perfume” workshop deep-diving into the olfactory notes of the fragrance; the “Crafting Ceramics” session, inviting participants to practice painting techniques on ceramic tiles, and the “Little Perfumers” creative laboratories dedicated to children and curated by Kikolle Lab.

As reported, the Acqua di Parma Caffè last yr also staged similar activities, because it coincided with the launch of the Colonia CLUB fragrance, an acronym for Community Life Unique Bond. The scent further built on the brand’s successful Colonia pillar, which boasts greater than a century of history. To wit, in 1916 Baron Carlo Magnani was searching for a distinct fragrance and commissioned a perfume artisan within the Italian town of Parma to create a cologne, which resulted in the unique Colonia.

Offered in an Art Deco glass bottle, the fragrance rose to popularity within the ’30s and gained international success within the ’50s, when bespoke tailors used to spritz the fragrance on made-to-measure suits before handing them to their high-end clientele, including Hollywood actors of the time.

The label’s aristocratic heritage was strengthened through the years as the corporate began to construct on its Italian lifestyle proposition and luxury image with latest products, including the Collezione Barbiere line of shaving products; the Blu Mediterraneo and Blu Mediterraneo Italian Resort fragrances and cosmetics inspired by exclusive locations on the Italian Mediterranean; home fragrances, and leather accessories.

The Colonia fragrance stays on the core of key developments and special projects by the corporate, including probably the most recent collaboration with A-Cold-Wall’s founder Samuel Ross and its design studio SR_A.

As reported, Acqua di Parma recently named Giulio Bergamaschi its latest chief executive officer. Taking the helm of the brand after an 18-year profession at L’Oréal and a stint at Loro Piana, Bergamaschi succeeded Laura Burdese, who at the tip of 2021 left her post as president and CEO of the Italian beauty company to hitch fellow LVMH-controlled firm Bulgari as vp of promoting and communication and member of the chief committee.