The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Casa Grande takes its name from the room Adele Fendi kept closest. Not the parlor for guests. The private one. Her daughters would later describe it as the warmest space in the apartment, full of afternoon light and the smell of well-loved leather. When Quentin Bisch was tasked with translating Fendi's heritage into a fragrance, he started there. The room became the brief: a composition that felt inhabited, familiar, and unmistakably Roman. Leather was never optional. It was the material the house was built on, literally, and it became the spine of the fragrance. Everything else, the myrrh, the cherry, the amber, was arranged around it, to give that leather a context worth wearing.
What makes Casa Grande interesting is the myrrh. Somali myrrh has a spiced, slightly bitter quality that most perfumers use sparingly. Here it anchors the heart and keeps the sweetness honest. The cherry doesn't arrive like fruit. It reads as a stone-sweet note, something buried in the composition that surfaces only occasionally. The tonka and vanilla build warmth without tipping into dessert territory. It's the kind of restraint that takes confidence, a fragrance that's sure enough of itself to be quiet in places.
The evolution
The opening is amber and leather arriving together. There's no citrus to soften the introduction, no bright top note to ease you in. It starts warm and stays warm. The Somali myrrh announces itself within minutes, adding a spiced, almost medicinal edge that cuts through the sweetness and keeps the composition from feeling flat. The cherry shows up around the heart, understated but persistent, a quiet sweetness underneath the leather that refuses to disappear completely. As the hours pass, the leather settles into something softer, worn-in rather than new, the kind of texture that comes from years of use. The tonka and vanilla do their work in the base, smoothing everything into warmth that lingers close to the skin. Moderate sillage means it stays with you rather than announcing itself. On most skin types, expect 8-10 hours of presence, with the drydown lasting well into the next day if you apply generously.
Cultural impact
Fendi's first fragrance collection arrived in 2024, ahead of the house's 2025 centennial. Seven fragrances, each tied to a different woman in the Fendi family. Casa Grande honors Adele Fendi, the founder whose name it carries, and the room she kept closest. It's a deliberate choice for a house built on craft over spectacle. The collection doesn't try to compete with established fragrance houses. It builds from what Fendi has always been: a Roman family that made things worth keeping.
