Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story of Bois 1920 begins in 1920, when Guido Galardi, a young Florentine with a fascination for botanical extracts, set up a tiny laboratory in his family’s courtyard. He harvested lavender from the hills that ring the city and experimented with tinctures using copper stills that had been employed by local apothecaries. Over the next decade he refined a handful of simple blends that were shared with friends and neighbours. By the 1950s the Galardi workshop had grown enough to serve a small circle of boutique retailers in Tuscany. The brand remained a family operation; after Guido’s death, his son Marco continued the practice, adding a focus on sourcing ingredients from specific terroirs. In 2005 the house released Vetiver Ambrato, its first widely documented fragrance, marking a shift toward limited‑edition releases that appealed to collectors. The following years saw a steady stream of new scents: Notturno Fiorentino (2010) explored nocturnal florals, Come L’Amore (2011) blended citrus and amber, and Oro 1920 (2013) celebrated the original year of the house with a gold‑tinged amber accord. Vento nel Vento (2013) and Real Patchouly (2005) reinforced the brand’s commitment to natural raw materials. Recent milestones include Sacro E Profano (2022), a fragrance that pairs incense with rare woods, and Scorzaforza (2024), a modern reinterpretation of a 1920s leather scent. The most recent addition, Decisamente Rosa (2026), showcases a rose harvested from a historic garden in the Tuscan countryside. Throughout its century‑plus existence, Bois 1920 has remained a small‑scale operation, with production still centred in the original Florentine workshop. Bois 1920 frames perfumery as a dialogue between nature and the hand that blends it. The house states that each formula is approached as an alchemical act, where the purity of the raw material dictates the direction of the composition. Rather than chasing trends, the brand looks to the historic practices of Florentine apothecaries, allowing those methods to inform contemporary scent structures. Sustainability appears in the choice of ingredients: the team prefers plant extracts harvested at peak ripeness and works with growers who practice low‑impact agriculture. The brand also limits batch sizes to preserve the integrity of each aroma, believing that a smaller volume encourages a more intimate relationship between creator and consumer. Creative decisions are guided by narrative: a fragrance is meant to evoke a specific memory or place, whether it is the scent of lavender fields at dawn or the metallic whisper of an old railway station. This narrative focus is reinforced by the fact that many releases are tied to personal milestones in the Galardi family, turning each bottle into a small chronicle of the house’s ongoing story.