Florentine perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi came to the fragrance business in a rather round-about way. After studying psychology at the University of Florence, he spent a year in New York before returning to Italy to complete degrees in philosophy and religion. Subsequent travels in North Africa and the Middle East sparked an interest in spices and other fragrant materials, and eventually he was asked to create fragrances for friends, and then scented candles for Fendi.
He officially launched his own business in 1990, and continues to create custom perfumes in addition to his ready-made line. His next fragrance release will be Alamut, an oriental scent that should launch in February or March of next year.
I understand that you have a degree in philosophy, and I am wondering what career you would have pursued if you had not become a perfumer?
Theoretically I would have become a kind of Academic, a researcher in Ancient Philosophy or perhaps I would have moved rather towards the Ancient past: Sumerian or Acadian culture, Semitics, Ancient Minor Asian Thought or even Anthropology…