Antonio Gardoni is an architect first, and practised architecture long before perfume. Around 2010 a fascination with trees, shrubs and flowers had him chopping, steeping and extracting plant material, and when the results raised questions he taught himself organic chemistry from textbooks. Bogue Profumo, his house in Brescia, dates from 2013, and MAAI, his first official perfume, came out in 2014.
He makes many of his own materials, steeping resins, woods, roots and even metals in alcohol and steam-distilling essential oils, working at night once the day's smells have gone. Architecture taught him to build in layers and to work by taking away. Bogue Profumo MAAI is an animalic chypre of tuberose, rose and jasmine over civet, castoreum and oakmoss; Bogue Profumo O/E stacks citrus and leafy greens on an animalic frame; Bogue Profumo MEM pushes lavender towards clay, hops, toasted malt and burnt sugar. With Bruno Fazzolari he spent over a year swapping formulas, surrealist-game style, to make Cadavre Exquis, a 2016 gourmand in an edition of 99.
Zoologist Tyrannosaurus Rex started as a joke at Esxence, when Victor Wong of Zoologist said one of Gardoni's vetiver perfumes smelled primal enough to be called T-Rex. Gardoni messaged him early next morning to take it on. Released in 2018 at 23 per cent, it is a smoky wood of cade, frankincense, leather and civet, lit by rose, champaca and osmanthus.
