Lorenzo Dante Ferro, The Master Perfumer
Perfumers are placed in a very special light just by number alone. Being one of less than a hundred members of this prestigious club, brings with it numerous social responsibilities and some important privileges. It is through the very nature of their human craft, developed carefully over several years of study and application, that young perfumers become capable of identifying and memorizing hundreds of natural raw materials coming from every remote part of the world. This training consists in knowing every aspect of every single ingredient: in some instances, from its cultivation to its harvest, from its transformation, to learning its exact time of evaporation. This knowledge is fundamental if one is to compose original fragrance formulations which are to be distinguished: be it by the quality of the raw materials selected or by the artistic hand that has woven them so beautifully together.
Perfumery may be defined as a perfect fusion of Science with Art, one which must truly be mastered. It is a world where improvisation has no place. It is only after long years of experience, after thousands of trials and experiments, after years of work as a perfumer with the celebrated international creators and manufacturers of fine fragrances, that one has truly earned the privilege of the title Master Perfumer. It is a title earned from the success gained through untiring discipline, determination and not simply because it is a title taken on at one’s whim or because it once was a hobby. Ours is a world where those that don the guise of perfumers, will sooner or later be readily identified as being out of place: for they have dared to impoverish an art so precious, so rare, whose knowledge has been passed down for centuries with the greatest of teachings and with the greatest of respect.
Master Perfumers compose numerous ingredients from both rich and poor nations, making it their personal quest to develop a fragrance creation which is beautiful and harmonic which will bond these two worlds: almost as part of a personal mission. It is at the moment they reach these heights, that perfumers become true ambassadors of the world: representing the hundreds of people who have painstakingly cultivated fields, gathered thousands of flowers and plants to extract into absolutes or distil into precious essential oils for Perfume is a labour of love which expresses the very essence of civilization. When one makes this consideration, the philosophy behind fine fragrance creation grows increasingly more important, for a bottle of perfume vibrates at a much higher frequency than a capriccio; it is a precious, living and expressive medium that contains the world.
Lorenzo Dante Ferro is fortunate indeed to be one of these hundred Master Perfumers. Having rightfully earned his title, he is one of the very few independent creators and producers of fine fragrances for limited and exclusive distribution today. After acquiring extensive, international experience in the world’s most important centers of fragrance creation: Zurich, Grasse, London, New York and Paris, he selected to step out on his own, breaking away from the corporate world of fragrance, to return to his origins.
This difficult choice proved to be vital for the creation of perfumes of the finest quality, destined for niche markets which would rekindle the grand traditions of artistic, Italian fragrance creations. In 1982, he founded his small, Italian artisan company and established his Creative Perfume Studio and production laboratories in two countryside villages in the northeast of Italy, between Venice and Trieste. This is a unique location, where Nature has remained true to herself and has proven to be fertile ground for inspiration throughout the years. In the past, its artesian wells, rivers and lush vegetation inspired poets (Ippolito Nievo), painters (Leonardo da Vinci) and writers (Ernest Hemingway, Elio Bartolini, Sergio Maldini).