Filippo Sorcinelli
Filippo Sorcinelli grew up amid the quiet reverence of Italian cathedrals, where his father stitched vestments for clergy. The young Filippo learned the language of fabric before he ever opened a bottle. After studying fine arts and music, he spent a decade tailoring liturgical garments for Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, a role that taught him precision, ritual and the power of scent to frame ceremony. In 2013 he turned that discipline toward perfume, founding UNUM Parfums as an extension of his atelier. The launch marked his first public foray into fragrance, and the collection quickly earned a cult following among collectors who prized its conceptual depth. Today he balances the scent lab with painting, photography, organ performance and graphic design, treating each medium as a different brushstroke on the same canvas of experience.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Filippo composes
In the lab Filippo favors a minimalist palette that lets a single accord dominate. He reaches for natural absolutes—cistus, frankincense, and aged woods—paired with unexpected accents such as metallic salts or smoked resins. He often layers a bright citrus top over a dense, reverberating heart, then grounds the piece with a deep, resinous base. His background in tailoring informs his approach: he cuts, sews and structures each note with the same care a tailor gives a double‑breasted coat. The result feels both architectural and intimate, a scent that reveals new facets the longer it sits on skin.
Philosophy
What drives Filippo
Sorcinelli treats perfume as a visual art, translating color, texture and sound into aroma. He believes a scent should echo a memory or a feeling as clearly as a photograph captures light. Each formula begins with a narrative—a moment in a chapel, a chord on the organ, a brushstroke on canvas—and he builds the composition to support that story. He avoids trends, preferring instead to let the subject dictate the ingredients. For him, fragrance is a dialogue between the maker and the wearer, a quiet conversation that unfolds over minutes and hours.
The houses
Maisons Filippo composes for
In the same league