Heritage
A house, in its own words
La Serra emerged in the Italian niche fragrance landscape in 2023, founded by Alberto Anselmi, a clinical psychologist, in collaboration with Fabrice Pellegrin, a perfumer with a background in Grasse. The partnership brings together clinical understanding of human behavior and classical perfumery training, creating a brand that treats fragrance as a medium for exploring psychological states rather than purely aesthetic expression. The name La Serra draws from the Italian word for greenhouse, referencing the historic glass structures built near monasteries and aristocratic estates across Italy. These spaces cultivated rare botanicals and served as spaces of controlled growth, a metaphor that resonates with the brand's approach to studying emotional patterns through scent. The brand launched its initial collection of four monothematic perfumes in 2023, each named after psychological conditions or behaviors. Binge Eating Vanilla, Compulsive Musk, Obsessive Leather, and Borderline Neroli were released throughout that year, establishing La Serra's distinctive naming convention that borrows terminology from clinical psychology. In 2024, the brand continued expanding its collection with Borderline Neroli, demonstrating a commitment to the House of Musk positioning while exploring other olfactory territories. The Italian origin shapes the brand's aesthetic and production approach, with manufacturing taking place in Italy using local and imported raw materials. La Serra presents itself as a conceptual fragrance house, where each perfume is designed to evoke specific emotional or cognitive associations rather than following conventional fragrance families or market trends.
La Serra approaches perfumery from the perspective of a psychological framework rather than a purely artistic or commercial one. Alberto Anselmi, drawing from his clinical background, developed the brand concept around the idea that scents can map and articulate mental states. The collection names directly reference psychological conditions and behavioral patterns, suggesting that each fragrance corresponds to a specific emotional territory. This approach treats perfume as a tool for self-exploration and emotional recognition, inviting wearers to consider the psychological dimensions of olfactory experience. The brand does not follow seasonal release cycles or trend-driven fragrance development. Instead, each perfume explores a single note in depth, creating monothematic compositions that focus on intensity and clarity rather than complexity through layering. This methodology rejects the conventional perfumery approach of building fragrances around top, heart, and base notes, instead centering the entire composition on one dominant olfactory element. The collaboration between psychologist and perfumer represents a deliberate fusion of disciplines. Anselmi contributes conceptual direction and emotional mapping, while Pellegrin handles the technical execution of translating psychological concepts into olfactory reality. This partnership allows the brand to claim both intellectual rigor and practical craftsmanship as foundations of its identity.
