That scent belonged to the daily work of the atelier. It travelled alongside each object, lending the sense of smell a part of the story that the formal language of sight had left unspoken. In time, it was the very people who received those boxes who recognised that signature and asked that it might exist on its own.

And so LAVS became a fragrance, marking the beginning of Filippo Sorcinelli's olfactory quest.

Twenty-five years have passed since then and, as the perfume journeyed through countries, cultures and sensibilities, its creator journeyed through himself. Tailoring was joined by photography, painting, music, performance and an olfactory universe growing ever more personal, in which perfume has taken on the dignity of an artistic language.

Olfactory research has become a means of questioning the sacred, the body, memory, vulnerability, desire, and that unfathomable realm of the human being where beauty and unease so often come to recognise one another.