ORTO PARISI

Orto Parisi is one of Alessandro Gualtieri's most personal and conceptual fragrance projects. The Maison is dedicated to his grandfather, Vincenzo Parisi, and grew from a childhood memory of his grandfather's garden. Gualtieri explains that Vincenzo used natural bodily waste to fertilize the soil, and this intensely earthy, unromantic cycle inspired him to think about the relationship between the human body and a garden. The earliest Orto Parisi creations appeared in 2014, and the house identifies its production as Made in Italy.

The Maison's manifesto deliberately challenges modern culture's tendency to suppress and disguise natural body odors. In Gualtieri's vision, the body can be experienced like a garden, while its smells become a reflection of a person's inner nature. Orto Parisi consequently explores earth, physicality, animal instinct, decay, regeneration, fertility and the continuous cycles of nature. It is intentionally physical and sometimes uncomfortable perfumery, pushing scent far beyond the conventional ambition simply to “smell pleasant” and toward an investigation of humanity's animal nature.

The visual language of Orto Parisi is equally material. Heavy metals, wood, horn and other natural substances used in bottle caps can feel closer to sculpture or ritual objects than conventional perfume packaging. Luxury here does not mean polished perfection; the Maison values earth, imperfection, the body and aspects of nature that civilized culture often prefers to conceal. Gualtieri's recognizable rebelliousness becomes especially personal in Orto Parisi, centered on a garden, the memory of his grandfather and the natural cycle of life.