Anna Paghera: Green Fragrances & More

by: Serguey Borisov

Anna Paghera was born in a green-thumb family, so when the other kids were playing with Legos and dolls, she was playing with plants, trees and garden design. Five generations of the family have been devoted to nature, with a surname which, in the ancient local language, means "fir wood." She joined her brother's landscape architecture company in the 1970s and got a lot of experience working with gardens, green scenery and interior design. In 1995 she created Paghera Green Philosophy, and worked with Theatro alla Scala, Aldo Coppola, Gianfranco Ferre, Bulgari and Vogue on some green projects. Anna's eco-green-chic vision is applied now to different yet complementary fields: green design, interior design and fragrance collections. The first fragrance line was made for Rovery & Aura, in the 80s-90s. Now Anna Paghera collaborates with Priorthai & Purebliss, with Seven Stars Galleria Milano, and Casa degli Spiriti upon lake Garda, amongst others.

It was a pleasure for me to meet the fragrances of Anna Paghera at Pitti Fragranze and to learn more about the new fragrances from PR manager Paolo Rosselli.

Paolo Rosselli:
Anna came from the field of botany, so she knows every single component existing—be it a plant, a tree, a seed—by its Latin name. So what she does is tell a master perfumer what result she wants. Like, “I want the fragrance that creates this sort of mood, by means of Jasmine and Mint, with a pinch of this and a tad of that." That's the starting idea. The master perfumer develops some versions of the same fragrance, and then the optimization process starts. When the versions are perfected, Anna chooses the fragrance that fits the mood most precisely.

Serguey Borisov:
So she is not a perfumer herself, is she?

Paolo Rosselli:
No, she's not a perfumer.

Serguey Borisov:
The fragrances are about emotions. What are they?

Paolo Rosselli:
First of all, there are two different lines. The first line we launched this fall is called Soul's Potions and we introduced it as home fragrance and aromatherapy. These eight fragrances are available as home fragrances and personal eau de toilette. The fragrances are the same, and all are inspired by Nature.

So here you find seductive potion Rosso di Cipro, as an example, "Cyprus Red," which is a fragrance identified by color and a place, and the natural component is very sweet vanilla balanced with bitter poppy seeds. Or regenerating potionAzzurro d'Ibla ("light blue of Ibla," the Sicilian town). You know, the idea is to recreate the Nature, for example, of the Mediterranean island.  There are a lot of aromatic herbs and flowers, so you find notes of pittosporum flowers together with oregano, salted seaside wind and orange blossom. Each fragrance has a particular message, and all the components were combined for the beauty of the accord and for synergistic aromatherapeutic action to make people happy or relaxed, to make them feel better.

These perfumes are potions that could help you get a positive mood again. There is a seductive potion, an energizing potion, an evocative potion, a meditative potion and so on … Like Verde di Kent ("Greens of Kent"), which smells of green cut grass with tomato leaves, and it's the evocative potion. Why evocative? Because smelling like tomato leaves and freshly cut green grass evoke the times when you were a kid playing in the vegetable garden of your father, and that's the whole message behind it.

The perfumes are designed to overload by details: color code, small round seals of different colors, geographical names supplied by colors and emotions. I was going to bash it as they do not feel like real things. The designer cautioned: “the content may generate side-effects only on subjects lacking in sense of humour or generally allergic to irony. Before using, take a good look in the mirror, forget about yourself and fill up with yourself.” Oh, well, so it's just a game. Don`t be so serious about your 65 euros—it's just the price of fun and a light-scented play of words for devoted people.

Serguey Borisov:
The next line is Elixirs?

Paolo Rosselli:
Yes, Elixirs is the new line and we launched it here, in Pitti 2014, it's our official launch. It consists of six home fragrances made available in 100 ml absolute black spray bottles. And also the same Elixirs will be available in 30 ml mixtures of essential oils for ultrasonic diffusers. We made the design to be very medieval, as the single components we selected for the collection of fragrances were used in Middle Ages, in medieval times. Those were the fragrances that were used before perfumery become popular.

For example, amber, myrrh and calamus were used in those times—but the composition is very contemporary, to make a link between past and present. The same link is in the packaging: the logo is medieval, but the packaging is modern minimalistic. We used black bottles to keep the oils unchanged. Every fragrance carries its message: Success, Joy, Luck, Charm, Happiness, Health. If you put these all together, you will have The Elixir of Life.

Serguey Borisov:
(laughing) So what if I spray all those at once in my room?

Paolo Rosselli:
You are the Master.

Serguey Borisov:
(laughing) OK. I see. Is it possible to wear them as personal fragrances?

Paolo Rosselli:
Not this line. As they consist of natural essential oils, they are not supposed to be sprayed onto skin.

Actually, it`s impossible to take the message of Anna Paghera fragrances too seriously, while the fragrances try to keep their promises. Like, Amuletum of Elixirs is made of myrrh, calamus, spikenard, woods and some antiseptic oils, so it keeps Bad Spirits (or microbes) away. Or Gaudium of Elixirs, made for day zones, with labdanum, violet, and guaiac wood, feels like the warm hug of a comfort zone fragrance. The smell of leather, peaty spirits and tobacco translates into a “dynamic, constructive and evolving mindset,” therefore it was named Successus and suggested “for those rooms in which the brain is at work.”

It looks like cool aromatherapeutic ideas are beginning to take root in niche perfumes. It seems that in times of crisis, niche perfumes cannot afford to be just beautiful. The perfumes should have some additional mood-changing or mind-evolving benefits, like those colored sacks for flour and sugar that were made into aprons or kids' dresses during the Great Depression.