Heritage
A house, in its own words
Michelangelo Brancato and Francilla Ronchi established Coreterno in 2015, marking the moment Brancato relocated from his native Rome to New York City. The Roman upbringing figures prominently in the brand's self-conception; Brancato has described his birthplace as a city where one is born surrounded by immense beauty. This cultural inheritance Informs the house's aesthetic vocabulary even as the New York setting introduced a different kind of energy, one rooted in underground music scenes and street-level creativity. The founders brought distinct backgrounds to the partnership. Brancato took on artistic direction, channeling sensibilities shaped by rock-and-roll, punk, and the eclectic underground movements of the 1970s. Ronchi contributed complementary expertise to build the house's operational foundation. The name Coreterno itself, meaning "eternal heart" in Italian, suggests a commitment to enduring emotional resonance over fleeting trends. Within the niche fragrance community, the house has attracted attention for its unconventional approach to both composition and presentation. The brand maintains retail presence including a notably small but distinctive shop location in Rome, which at least one visitor described as memorable enough to warrant multiple return visits. Coreterno operates from a conviction that fragrance should function as a form of personal rebellion rather than social conformity. Under Michelangelo Brancato's artistic direction, the house designs perfumes intended to embody the energy of rock-and-roll and punk movements, treating scent as an extension of identity rather than a decorative accessory. This approach rejects the notion of perfumery as purely pleasant or inoffensive. Instead, Coreterno compositions seek to make statements, to provoke responses, to mark territory both physical and psychological. The philosophy extends to the house's relationship with symbolism and mythology, drawing from poetic traditions to create layered meanings that reward attentive wearers. Rather than following seasonal release cycles or industry trend forecasting, Coreterno develops fragrances according to internal artistic impulses, releasing new works when inspiration crystallizes into coherent compositions. This methodology prioritizes creative authenticity over market timing, resulting in a catalog that resists easy categorization within niche fragrance's conventional genre boxes.