On the Radar: Maison Gabriella Chieffo Ragù ~Fragrance Review + Tastes of Home Draw

gabriella-chieffo perfumer maison  gabriella chieffo

Gabriella Chieffo of Maison Gabriella Chieffo  (Photo: Maison Gabriella Chieffo)

Gabriella Chieffo’s Collection ’14 was one of my unexpected surprises of this year.  A small white bag of samples arrived unannounced (arranged by EIC Michelyn Camen)  accompanied by an extravagant and esoteric mission statement that was frankly pretty wtf?… .a convoluted and deeply personal mix of art, sensuality, feminism, food, psychoanalysis, maternity and olfactory obsession. There was an overwhelming sensation of whiteness about everything… bleached, leached, albino, tones of bone, ash, wing and snow.  Packaging, samples, paper, even the initial hits of scent. All have a trademark vanillic opacity. There are four fragrances in the collection: Ragù, Camaheu, Hystera and Lye, all of them emotionally linked to Gabriella and her unique aromatic interpretations of her biographical world. One of the things I like about these scents is their implied femininity. Gender is not something I really pay heed to in fragrance, but occasionally certain collections are imbued with a powerful sexuality as to be strikingly different. It is quite hard to avoid Gabriella Chieffo’s powerful blend of matriarchy, motherhood, childbirth, kitchen, gender and nurturing creativity.

gabriella chieffo perfumes

Ragu, Lye, Hystera, Camaheu…Gabriella Chieffo as four different  feminine archetypes (Photo: Gabriella Chieffo)

The fragrances are personified by elaborately staged portraits of Gabriella herself, posing in Cindy Sherman-esque tableaux, surrounded by the iconography of each perfume. For Ragù, she channels Monica Bellucci, as a braided and provocative kitchen wench dreaming of elsewhere, gazing off into the past or future. Behind her, tethered owls and winged monkeys cavort and tell of dreams and madness. Camaheu is an essay in overflowing whiteness, flowers, lace, weddings, communion, and shroud. A bared shoulder hints at a more wanton nature amid the cornucopia of blondness and offered blooms. In her hand she tenderly holds one giant rose like a beautiful weapon. Hystera is protection, Gabriella wrapped in a glassy womb, her blurred nudity floating amid blown-up vein forms of eyes, trees or rivers, an artistic echo of her own teenage pregnancy. Lye is the oddest image, Gabriella as strega biancha, a white witch, winnowing ashes on a deserted beach, clothed in tones of bone and bride, hair. This image is ritual and spell, goodbye and remembrance

 

sophia loren  pasta ragu

Sophia Loren 1971 Cooking with Love

 Ragù is the scent however that really stunned me, I have never smelled anything like it. Gabriella has captured what she refers to as ..‘A gentle sweetness that tastes of home. A family perfume’. As its name obviously implies it is a scent of home, kitchen and treasured recipe, inspired by the eight hour long slow cooking of the classic Neapolitan ragu sauce for pasta. A scent of a carefree weekend, a Sunday of women: sisters, mothers, daughters preparing a sauce of supreme elegance and power. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, oregano, thyme. Floured hands rolling perfect small balls of meat to be dropped into pots of bubbling crimson sauce. The secret of the sauce is in the longevity of the cooking, drawn out over lush simmering hours. Tomatoes caramelising, sugars oozing out into thickening pulpy mix of aromatic herbs and piquant pepper.

sophia loren tomato wood spoons

Sophia Loren 1971 Cooking with Love

The fragrance opens on a dry, dazzling burst of spicy pink pepper and orange that segues into a complex crumbled mix of sweet black pepper, nutmeg, elemi, cloves, saffron and cardamom. Despite the obvious spicy overtone to this section, the blending creates a near perfect facsimile on the nose of dried rubbed oregano, simmering amid the garlic and sweet tomatoes of the sauce. There is a touch of woody darkness to desiccated herbs that appeals to me and it's this I can smell in the herbaceous aura of Ragù. The base is loaded with cypriol, woods, patchouli and the wonder of Cashmeran, a disturbing softener of edges, bringer of shimmering translucency.

ragu gabriella chieffo

Photo: The Silver Fox

Ragù is a fabulous collision of mama, food, skin and wistfulness. Gabriella Cheiffo’s olfactive sleight of hand is admirable; the skin smells just savoury enough without the scent becoming a parody. There is great delicacy at work here, the notes combined with the finesse and finish of a recipe that has been handed down and made by a hundred hands on a hundred stoves. Odours of home, hearth and return are very powerful. We all harbour smells we recognise as markers of childhood and growth. The kitchen is a crucible of olfaction, scents mingling, crashing and pressing in on our evolving senses. These are the smells that call the soul home.

 Disclosure – Original samples kindly received from Gabriella Chieffo, subsequent samples and bottle of Ragù from my own collection.

Editor's Note: Gabriella Chieffo launched at Pitti Fragranze 2014 this past September. I chose the fabulous photos of Sophia Loren to complement TSF review.

The Silver Fox , Senior Editor and Editor of the Silver Fox

gabriella chieffo cafleurebon

Thanks to Gabriella Chieffo we have a draw for any reader of the world of a sample set of Ragù, Camaheu, Hystera and Lye. Please leave a comment about TSF review of Ragu, where you live and which sounds the most appealing. Draw ends December 18, 2014.

We announce the winners on our site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize wil be just spilled perfume

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22 comments

  • ooo. i love this. reminds me of Tori Amos’ American Doll Posse, a collection of archetypical feminine energies.

  • I love the picture of Sophia Loren with the giant utensils! Ragu sounds very interesting. I would have never imagined a perfume inspired by pasta sauce.

  • Holy Moly – Ragù sounds *brilliant*, and I love the notes – this is the sentence that sold me: “The kitchen is a crucible of olfaction, scents mingling, crashing and pressing in on our evolving senses. These are the smells that call the soul home.” Yes.

    Lye also sounds like my kind of Fougere; calabrian bergamot, italian lemon and incense, iris and leather, patchouli and opoponax.

    I’d love to try *all* of these woman-centric scents. I live in West Hollywood, CA, USA.

  • I could not help but notice Gabriella’s classic portrait and then Loren serving authentic Italian pizza……I will trust your nose if Ragu has convinced you as a successful perfume experiment on femininity. I recently smelled another utterly feminine creation and i think when done well, they really mesmerize us. I am in the U.S. thanks so much for the wonderful draw.

  • Sounds like Ragú is interesting, it must be difficult to create a foody perfume without making it too tasty. I wouldn’t want to smell like a Pizza, but a scent that captures home feelings is a great thing.
    From all pictures I find Lye the most interesting and I would live to know how it smells . thanks for the draw.

  • TSF review of Ragu I loved his description where he says that: “A gentle sweetness that tastes of home. A family perfume’……..a fabulous collision of mama, food, skin and wistfulness……..the skin smells just savoury enough without the scent becoming a parody.
    What seems appealing to me most is Hystera. I live in EU and I thank you for this lovely and tasty draw 😉

  • I enjoyed reading the whole review!
    I am intrigued by the notes in Ragu. Thanks for the opportunity! US resident.

  • what a great review! i’m super curious about ‘a near perfect facsimile on the nose of dried rubbed oregano, simmering amid the garlic and sweet tomatoes of the sauce’ 😉
    thank you for the draw. i’m in the EU

  • You had me at “touch of dark woods to desiccated herbs”. Quite unique fragrance would love to try it! I think Ragu would pique my interest the most. Thanks for the draw! Im in the US.

  • I see that Mr. Fox knows his food, not only his perfumes! Spices and sweet tomatoes must be the most curious fragrance description this year! A different kind of gourmand, I suppose. Yes, I would like some for dinner! And extra afterwords!
    The other one I am intrigued to try is Lye!
    Thanks for the chance! I am in Bulgaria (EU).

  • These sound amazing and I love the descriptions of what is presented by each picture. Based on the pictures, I think Camahu looks the most intriguing, but all of them I could imagine being fantastic. I’m in the US.

  • From the pictures, I like the look of Hystera best but in general I like the way she has represented all the scents through a picture of herself. It’s an unusual idea. I’m in the EU

  • The whiteness of the Lye is the one appealing to me the most. I’m in for the “trademark vanillic opacity” of all. US

  • Ragu is certainly a new fragrance concept and I am intrigued by the review, enough so that it is the one I am most curious to try. USA

  • The review is sounds very interesting, and I think these fragrances are all wonderful.
    I live in Europe.

  • the whole review was so sensitive, interesting concepts
    I am drawn to Lye
    Thanks for the internatinal draw- I live in Israel

  • What a nice and evocative review! Reading it, Ragu’ seems to me more like a feeling, a state of well-being, than perfume… I wouldn’t like to smell like a real ragu’ :), but I’d like to sample this one. The description intrigues me.
    I’m in the EU.
    Thanks for the draw!

  • I like that Gabriella herself poses for the photos representing the fragrances. Ragu sounds really good, especially the sentence: “odours of home and return are powerfull.” I am in the EU. Thanks for the draw.

  • Cynthia Richardson says:

    I enjoyed TSF’s review of Ragu and how he describes the fragrance’s powerful blend of matriarchy, motherhood, childbirth, kitchen, gender and nurturing creativity. I live in the US and I think Ragu sounds the most appealing.

  • What unusual and fascinating perfumes
    I have never heard of Gabriella Chieffo before but love her tableaux and the photos of Sophia Loren
    What appeals to me is the soul coming home to smells we recognize

  • Danu Sautot-Fyr says:

    what is there not to like,food, Italy, Sophia, Fragrance, recipe for a Mediterranean sojourn