Filippo Sorcinelli

Before the fragrance collection appeared, Filippo Sorcinelli worked with fabric, embroidery, and objects for the liturgy. The LAVS atelier, which he founded in 2001, designs and makes vestments, church furnishings, and accessories. The house's history notes its collaboration with the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, vestments for Benedict XVI, and work for the Mass inaugurating the pontificate of Francis in 2013.

The fragrance direction emerged within this practice rather than apart from it. The first UNUM composition appeared in 2014 as a tribute to the LAVS atelier and an idea of “olfactory tailoring.” The range of subjects then expanded: the house names Gothic art, music, photography, and fog among its creator's interests. This date applies precisely to the beginning of UNUM, but it is not presented as a separate legal founding date for the brand.

Music shapes the project's language as much as material craft does. Sorcinelli calls it his first source of inspiration and the organ the instrument that accompanies his life. This explains the musical labels used for parts of compositions on the fragrance pages: “subject,” “counter-subject,” and “coda” replace the conventional pyramid. The vocabulary suggests reading scent as a developing work rather than simply a list of ingredients.

UNUM addresses spirit without reducing it to one denomination. Its premise reaches beyond individual traditions and remains open to other arts. The current catalogue places UNUM and MEMENTO alongside series devoted to fog, rain, and wind. The main fragrance formats are 50 and 100 ml extraits, while the present company, Alter duo s.r.l., gives its address in Mondolfo, Italy.

LAVS directly connects the two chapters of the story. The house calls it the first composition it created and describes it as the scent of the sacred-vestment atelier. Tonka bean, amber, oakmoss, and opoponax meet elemi, labdanum, clove, and coriander; black pepper, cardamom, and jasmine add a spicy and floral contour. The incense theme therefore unfolds through resins, spices, warm amber depth, and a memory of craft.

but not today turns to the cinematic relationship between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. Bergamot, lemon, artemisia, and lavender form a sharp opening; styrax, cascarilla, rosemary, and calamus continue the movement, while sandalwood, oakmoss, galbanum, amber, and musk darken the finish. Rosa Nigra takes on another artistic problem: musk, cashmere wood, amber, vanilla, peach, sandalwood, freesia, artemisia, and anise evoke a rose even though rose itself is absent from the stated structure.

Vento forte translates the Exodus episode of a strong east wind into Suedral, Calone, oakmoss, a mud accord, and isobutyl quinoline. Together with LAVS, but not today, and Rosa Nigra, it demonstrates the house's method: first a cultural, spiritual, or natural narrative is chosen, then a material and olfactory equivalent is found for it. The Filippo Sorcinelli story is therefore best read not as one uniform note signature but as a continuation of interdisciplinary artistic work.