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SCENT ICON A N T O N I A’ S F L O W E R S Of the innumerable floral perfumes on the market, most are the vision of a perfumer – but would they be diferent if they had been created by a florist used to working with living blooms rather than essences? Antonia’s Flowers ofers an answer to that question. Launched in 1984, it was the debut fragrance of Antonia Bellanca, a New York florist, who named it after her shop. Spending day after day surrounded by flowers had given her a heightened sensitivity to their distinct scents and she spent a long time trying to find the perfect floral perfume. Disappointment ensued; none of the commercial scents smelled, to her, like the living blossoms she encountered at work. Bellanca decided to create her own fragrance instead, enlisting the help of French perfumer Bernard Chant and asking him to bottle the kind of cool, petal-meetsfoliage-meets-earth smell that hits you when you walk into a florist’s shop. She wanted freesias, her favourite flowers, to be integral to the scent. In order to achieve this, an innovation called ‘living flower’ technology was used. This involves reconstructing the aroma of real flowers using a combination of natural and synthetic notes, based on the perfumed air that swirls around the bloom – a kind of fragrance mimicry that results in a highly naturalistic efect. The element of air is also important – in its opening notes in particular, Antonia’s Flowers has an exhilarating, ozonic quality that conjures up the sensation of sunlight and scent drifting on a warm breeze. It has none of the cloying femininity of many floral perfumes, despite its pink, daisy-stoppered bottle. Indeed, fragrance expert Luca Turin classifies it as a ‘restful, masculine lavender’ because of its cool, powdery drydown. From £42 for 50ml, Liberty (liberty.co.uk). Don’t miss! Ceramicist Edmund de Waal’s new commission, ‘Atmosphere’, for Margate’s Turner Contemporary gallery. Inspired by the landscape of clouds over the North Sea, de Waal has created a series of suspended vitrines that contain 200 celadon and grey porcelain vessels. March 29–February 8; The Rendezvous,Margate CT9 (turnercontemporary.org).
With its luxuriously soft finish, velvet is the material of the season. We love this ‘Andersen Quilt’ sofa (1) by Rodolfo Dordoni for Italian furniture company Minotti, which features beautiful velvet upholstery. If you can’t stretch to the price tag, why not give your existing sofa a style update using velvet cushions or fabric? Here’s our pick of the best.
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1 ‘Andersen Quilt’ sofa by Rodolfo Dordoni, £8,480, Minotti (minottilondon.com) 2 ‘Gainsborough Grey’ cushion, £45, Oka (okadirect.com) 3 ‘Bark’ velvet, £85 per m, Osborne & Little (osborneandlittle.com) 4 ‘Eskimo’ velvet, £144 per m, De Le Cuona (delecuona.com)
56 ELLEDECORATION.CO.UK APRIL 2014
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WORDS: AMY BRADFORD (SCENT ICON) PICTURE: DAMIAN RUSSELL (SCENT ICON)
M I C R O T R E N D V E LV E T