In my chat with Persolaise, for his blog, asked about “sotto la luna”, I said: “….the first time I heard “sotto la luna” was many years ago, and since then it has stood for a lot. There is a poem by an Italian author, Giuseppe Barberis, called Danze Di Conigli Sotto La Luna (Dancing Rabbits Under The Moon). For a couple of reasons, the image of dancing rabbits under the moon is very inspiring to me. It is a melancholic, happy, soothing, saddening and enlightening picture.”

You can read the full first part of three (yes, we had fun talking…) here on Persolaise’s blog.

When I said so, I did not really think a lot about the image of rabbits dancing and what this picture might bring up in readers and how it may even change the perception of the fragrance, Gardenia.  It was an honest answer to a question about the why and how of “sotto la luna”, and going back many years in my life, it was just there, the image of rabbits dancing under the moon. I guess I have – in the last few years- added another picture: The white flower blooming under the moon.

Today’s picture: Really fast done this morning, specifically for this post, an aquarelle of a happy rabbit in the grass. A contract work for my blog…

Pictures, pictures, pictures. And perfumes. It is always utterly fascinating how they go together, supportive, distractive, positioning, guiding the way. It is actually one of the delights of Pitti Fragrance, the upcoming niche perfume show in Florence, to see all the many pictures that are used to communicate the fragrances. Often, these pictures say also a lot about the man and woman behind the scent, their esthetics, how they imagine the fragrance. Last year, there was everything: Still lifes, flowers, people, skin, architecture, pop art, renaissance, loud colors, soft whispers, white and black, big and small, mystic landscapes and macro flowers, and more.

But there will be no rabbits pictures, at the stand where you find me ; I will be standing at the KAON stand, built and managed by my Italian distributor, and with me there will be perfumer friends standing , too. There will be Gardenia flowers, at least on the flacon label. I do not know whether you realized it, but since years it is the first flower appearing on a flacon (again). Below is a cut-out of the label on the flacon: It was designed by my designer guru who helps me with the design of everything and who guides me. Every perfume in the sotto la luna line will have a flower on the label. THE flower. We actually already designed the hyacinth and the tuberose. (I love the tuberose design).

And trust me: It really, really took me a while to convince my design guru to put flowers on there. Flowers are tricky. It’s easy, very easy to drift into cheesy pinkish territory. Or into ” too feminine territory”, which sounds harsh but I did not find the right words right now: Gardenia, in my nose, goes well with men’s skin, and therefore I do not want to go too pink, if you know what I mean. But I wanted to see flowers on my flacons. In the end, we (or better: He, the guru) came up with the strong geometric pattern, sharp lines, that balance the lively flower.

I guess, my design guru is just happy that I don’t insist on rabbits. For the moment. Have a great day!

Gardenia sotto la luna label