DID THE WORLD NEED A PERFUME COLLECTION DEDICATED TO GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO?
A limited edition by Maldive celebrates the sinister and controversial figure of Gabriele D'Annunzio, unrequietedly tied to Italian Fascism and Mussolini. But before raising general outrage, Western fragrance industry and enthusiasts must face D'Annunzio's impact on perfumery
A drug consumer and erotomaniac.
An Italian fascist army officer who took part in The March of Rome, flight over Vienna, Fiume occupation and marked the partecipation of Italy in First World War (but at the same time had an unstable relation with Mussolini and the fascist party, and once exiled in Paris had an affair with a jewish lesbian, artist Ida Rubinstein).
D'Annunzio was also a cultured intellectual (our contemporary understanding of this term is attributed to him), egregious poet (Marcel Proust and James Joice were avid readers of his work), keen linguist and what most interests our blog, a nose and "odorarius magister" (coined term used by Chavalier Mario Ferrari).
The controversial figure of Gabriele D'Annunzio is constantly studied by historical revisionism and divides historian in two fractions: those who ask the Italian government and culture to revise and condemn D'Annunzio, and those who read the many nuances of this man and struggle to judge (history shouldn't be judged through the lens of modern eyes, Presentists would state).
Considering the unsustainable nature of perfume collecting, what we mean when talking about engaging more consciously in perfume consumerism then, is also researching and admitting the troubling history of Western perfumery and its protagonists.
Is a Gabriele D'Annunzio perfume morally worse than Le Labo's sustainability claims under Estee Lauder? (Of which by the way, in our own human paradoxicity, we do enjoy some of their scents)
Another question we get from friends being shockingly entertained about learning the existence of this perfume line and its "muse" is:
<if Mussolini was the inspiration behind a perfume, would you buy it too?>
The answer is clearly of negative interest, but the difference between D'Annunzio and Mussolini, from a perfumery perspective, is that the latter didn't have any impact on the industry (but of course we can't deny that Fascist era dictated a certain taste).
D'Annunzio was a VIP client of Guerlain, Coty, Parfums Caron and many italian brands, like Lepit or Carlo Erba.
In addition, his erudite linguistic playfulness that influenced the contemporary Italian (and English) language, made him what today would have been considered a marketing genius.
D'Annunzio invented perfume names and also curated marketing slogans for a perfume line by Lepit.
If this wasn't enough to outline his contribution to modern Western perfumery, he was also a nose and produced his own scents.
Marco Vidal, head of the cosmetic company MALDIVE that created this line, stated that perfumes hold a cultural meaning , a narrative that we (consumers) often omit.
Vidal collaborated with Giordano Bruno Guerri, a historian, activist, intellectual and one of D'Annunzio biographer, and launched the limited edition dedicated to the poet and his impact on perfumery in 2018 for an exhibition dedicated to D'Annunzio's love of perfumery at Vittoriale, his villa -now museum- at Gardone Riviera (Lake Garda).
Our community must face its radicated connections to imperialism and colonialism, and omitting the figure of D'Annunzio for the European/Western conception of perfumery is not only dishonest but also bigot.
Do we encourage buying this fragrance line? An honest answer: it depends.
It is not a perfume collection to be worn. If it was meant to sell, probably the marketing strategy behind it would have been more curated and the "muse" wouldn't be D'Annunzio.
We understand this line more for its historical meaning than actually enjoying the fragrances (which to be fair are well blended and probably deserve a review more related to the juices, but still, the idea of wearing a fragrance of D'Annunzio is not so appealing to us).
Perfumes, just like fashion, music or art, are not always meant to please the consumer.
Sometimes they are tinted in untold stories of pain and oppression.
This fragrance collection ends up being camp sohemow in its distorted nature, which was probably more intentional then MALDIVE wants us to believe.
By dedicating a whole line to such a complicated and nuanced figure, the statement is probably the opposite of what perfume companies are used to produce and reinforce.
What we take from this discovery, is that this hobby is way more complicated and intersected with history, society and culture than what the usual narrative of commercial perfumery sells.
In our opinion, it is not a naive celebration of D'Annunzio, but rather a manifesto on the nature of Western perfumery and its bigotry in hiding its troubled past.
This buy is unnecessary for most of collectors, clearly (unless you are into collecting vintage fragrances), but definetly interesting due to its nature. It pushes the owner to critically reflect on what this industry is made of, and how we should engage with the troubling past of our culture.
We also want to conclude reflecting if the Western modern and intellectually emancipated "ubermensch" is really ready to give up on all the products and habits that find their origins in concerning periods of European and Western history. Will you give up your weekly Cosmopolitan (check out Guggenheim's review of Depero advertisement for Vanity Fair) or Campari (the fascist alcohol par excellance)?
With all the products on the market nowadays, we instead recommend to 1) engage on the history behind the final product, and 2)boycott contemporary brands that perpetuate worrying narratives and statements.
If simply cancelling and relaunching a witch-hunt towards the not-so-emancipated troubling figures of our history past is mere opportunism and bigotry, we are definitely in the position to select more consciously products and support brands which work to establish a more open and acceptable society.
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| Fortunato Depero, Sketch for the cover of Vanity Fair, courtesy of Guggenheim |
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Bibliographies on D'Annunzio:
- The Pike: The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War, by Lucy Hughes-Hallet (2013)
-D'Annunzio, L'Amante Guerriero by Giordano Bruno Guerri
Academic Journal Articles:
- D'Annunzio and the self-fashioning of a national icon, by Giuliana Pieri (2016); Published online by Cambridge University Press
- Hinduism and the mystical aestheticism of Gabriele D’Annunzio: “Una sensualità rapita fuor de’ sensi”, by Barbara Turoff (2017); Published online by Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies
