Fashion Magazine

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
A spritz of new Valentino Valentina (from $96, at department stores) is a fragrant cloud of Amalfi orange flowers, Calabrian bergamot and wild strawberries—all homages to the house’s homeland. But the big-deal ingredient is white truffle from Alba. “Valentino wanted something expensive, chic, noble, aristocratic,” explains perfumer Olivier Cresp, who also considered caviar. “No one has used it in any kind of perfumery.” He brought half a kilo of the expensive shrooms into the lab, but not before rolling up his sleeves. “You have to dig one metre [down] to excavate the truffles,” he says, adding that truffle gives the classic fragrance “modernity” and “aphrodisiac facets.” Because of the price tag, Cresp had to recreate the note synthetically—if he hadn’t, a bottle of Valentina would have been priced closer to the cost of a couture dress.