September 2026
His work spans collaborating with leading fragrance industry players, teaching olfactory and sensory marketing, and researching the cultural dimensions of scent. In 2023, he received the Bulgari Swiss Genius Prize, and in 2025 he presented his research on the role of perfume in the Bible at the international FACTUM conference in Stockholm.
Today, Pietro is the Creative Director of Experience Lab, the experiential area of an international beauty trade fair. His own relationship with fragrance is equally personal: what began as a fascination with perfume gradually became a way of understanding memory, identity and the different ways we communicate without words.
In this conversation, we talk about fragrance as an invisible layer of personal style, the relationship between clothing and scent, olfactory identity, and why finding “your” perfume may have less to do with choosing a signature note than with recognising a version of yourself you want to inhabit.
IG: @pietrolattao
COULD YOU START BY TELLING A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR WORK? WHAT DO YOU DO, AND HOW DID PERFUME BECOME SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE?
I’ve always had a deep passion for perfume. When I was younger, every year I would ask for a fragrance as a gift, and that would become my perfume of the year. At the time, I never really questioned why I felt such a strong desire to do that.
It was only later, through my studies, that I found an answer: the famous Proustian madeleine (Editor’s note: Proustian madeleine — an expression referring to a taste, smell, sound that suddenly and vividly brings back memories of the past). I realised that, in a way, I wanted to photograph my years through fragrances, to associate each period of my life with a scent and crystallise those moments in my memory.
What started as a personal passion gradually became my profession. Today, I work across different areas of the fragrance industry: I’m a content creator, a lecturer at several universities, and a strategic consultant for fragrance brands, working on areas such as storytelling, communication, brand positioning and olfactory marketing (Editor's note: Olfactory marketing (or scent marketing) is a promotional tool that uses pleasant scents to attract customers, influence their emotions, and boost sales).
So, for me, perfume is much more than a product. It is a cultural and emotional tool, capable of connecting people with memories, places and identities. That is what made my passion evolve into a professional life entirely centred around fragrance.
PERFUME IS OFTEN DESCRIBED AS THE FINISHING TOUCH TO AN OUTFIT. DO YOU THINK THIS DEFINITION UNDERESTIMATES ITS ROLE? COULD FRAGRANCE INSTEAD BE CONSIDERED AN INVISIBLE LAYER OF PERSONAL STYLE?
Formally, it can be considered the finishing touch to an outfit, but I think that description somehow underestimates its role. To me, fragrance is more like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence: it firmly reinforces and affirms what we want to communicate. It gives value to everything that comes before it. Clothes can tell a story, but fragrance adds another, invisible dimension to that story, one that is deeply personal and often even more memorable. It is not simply the final touch; it is what gives the whole expression its emphasis.
WHEN WE MEET SOMEONE FOR THE FIRST TIME, HOW DO THEIR CLOTHES AND FRAGRANCE WORK TOGETHER TO SHAPE OUR IMPRESSION OF THEM? WHICH DO YOU THINK WE REGISTER FIRST?
We live in a society deeply shaped by images. Sight is often the first sense we use to decide whether something attracts us or not, whether a person interests us or not. So, naturally, clothing is usually what we register first. It creates the immediate visual impression and gives us the first clues about someone’s personality and identity.
But fragrance has something that clothing doesn’t: the power of proximity. You cannot truly experience a fragrance from a distance. You have to come closer. And that simple act changes the nature of the encounter. Smelling someone’s perfume means crossing a physical and, in a way, emotional threshold. It is the consequence of a choice; the choice to approach, to enter someone’s personal space.
That is what makes fragrance so fascinating to me. Clothes are what we see from afar; fragrance is what we discover when we get closer. One creates the first impression, the other creates intimacy.
So perhaps style is not only about what we choose to show, but also about what we allow others to discover when they come closer.
I think this is a difficult question to answer, because it ultimately depends on what we want to do with a fragrance, and, more importantly, on the impulse that makes us choose one scent over another.
Fragrance can reinforce an outfit, soften it, or completely subvert the message we initially create.
There are people who wear a very bold, powerful look and choose a sweet, delicate fragrance precisely to soften it and create a sense of contrast. And then there are people who wear an extremely romantic, feminine or delicate look and deliberately choose an intense, sharp, almost abrasive fragrance to introduce tension and complexity.
I think that is what makes the relationship between fashion and fragrance so fascinating: they don't necessarily have to say the same thing.
Sometimes we choose harmony, sometimes contrast. And that contrast can actually reveal something more about us than perfect coordination ever could. The fragrance becomes a way of editing the message of the outfit, either underlining it, softening it, or challenging it completely.
This is, to me, the wonderful work of perfumers! The “noses” who are able to translate one sensory language into another.
There is no literal dictionary where grey equals a particular ingredient, or tweed equals a specific note. The translation happens through associations, textures, emotions and contrasts. A perfumer looks at an image, a fabric, a silhouette or even an architectural space and asks: What would this feel like if it had a smell?
For example, Tweed, for me, would have to feel textured. I imagine woody notes, dry spices, vetiver, perhaps a touch of leather, something with roughness and depth, rather than something perfectly smooth.
WE USE CLOTHING TO APPEAR MORE AUTHORITATIVE, APPROACHABLE, CREATIVE, SENSUAL, OR RESERVED. CAN FRAGRANCE HELP US SHAPE THESE IMPRESSIONS AS WELL? AND WHERE ARE THE LIMITS OF HOW MUCH WE CAN CONSCIOUSLY CONTROL THE IMPRESSION WE MAKE THROUGH SCENT?
Absolutely. Fragrance can influence the way we are perceived just as clothing does. We can consciously choose a fragrance that feels warm and approachable, clean and reassuring, sensual, authoritative, mysterious or even unconventional. In that sense, perfume can become a tool of self-expression and a way of constructing our personal image.
But I think there is an important limit: we can control the message we send, but we cannot completely control the meaning that someone else gives to it.
Scent is an incredibly subjective language. The same fragrance can feel sophisticated to one person, seductive to another, and nostalgic or even unpleasant to someone else, because smell is so deeply connected to personal memories and experiences.
And there is another fascinating difference from clothing: fragrance is invisible. You can control what you wear visually, but once a fragrance enters the air, it becomes part of the environment and of the experience of the people around you.
So I don't think perfume allows us to control an impression. It allows us to propose one.
We choose the story we want to tell, but the person who smells us completes the story with their own memories, emotions and associations. And perhaps that is precisely where the magic of fragrance lies: it is one of the few elements of personal style that we can consciously choose, but never completely control.
Choosing a fragrance can feel overwhelming because there are thousands of options, and we often approach perfume as if there were a right or wrong answer. But there isn’t. The most important thing is to start from yourself.
I would ask a few simple questions: What smells make me feel comfortable? What memories do certain smells evoke? Do I want to feel elegant, sensual, fresh, mysterious, confident, or perhaps simply at home? And what do I want people to perceive when they are close to me?
I also think it is important to forget the idea that you need to immediately find your signature scent. Perfume is a journey of discovery. You can try different olfactory families, experiment, and even change your fragrance depending on your mood or the occasion.
And there is something else that I find very important: we change, and our sense of smell and our taste evolve with us. What fascinates us today might not speak to us in five years, and a note we once disliked might suddenly become something we love. Our olfactory preferences are not fixed; they grow as we do.
Ultimately, finding a fragrance that feels like “you” is less about identifying a note you like and more about recognising an emotion, a memory or a version of yourself that you want to inhabit.
WHAT EXPRESSES A PERSON MORE AUTHENTICALLY: HAVING ONE SIGNATURE FRAGRANCE, OR BUILDING AN OLFACTORY WARDROBE THAT CHANGES WITH THEIR CLOTHES, MOODS, SEASONS, AND DIFFERENT ROLES IN LIFE?
For a long time, I had just one fragrance. It was my perfume, my signature. Today, I have many, and I constantly find myself changing them. I have to admit that, sometimes, I miss the simplicity of having that one fragrance that people immediately associate with you. But with the work I do, I’m constantly discovering and trying new scents, so my relationship with perfume has naturally evolved.
And I think there is a philosophical point here: we are not just one thing. We are made up of many different sides, emotions and identities. Having a hundred fragrances and changing them constantly can be just as authentic as having only one.
So perhaps an olfactory wardrobe doesn’t make us less authentic; it can actually reflect the complexity of who we are. After all, we don’t dress the same way every day, so why should we smell the same way?
For me, authenticity in fragrance is not about consistency. It is about choosing the scent that feels true to the person you are at that particular moment.
IDEAS OF WHAT SMELLS ELEGANT, FEMININE, MASCULINE, EXPENSIVE, OR PROFESSIONAL ARE STRONGLY SHAPED BY CULTURE. ARE THERE ANY PARTICULARLY ITALIAN OLFACTORY CODES OR ASSOCIATIONS? WHAT TENDS TO SMELL “ELEGANT,” “SENSUAL,” OR “SUCCESSFUL” IN ITALIAN CULTURE?
I think Italy has some very distinctive olfactory codes, and many of them are deeply connected to rituals and ideas of care, beauty and tradition.
One of the clearest examples is eau de cologne. Think of Acqua di Parma and its iconic Colonia: citrus, freshness, cleanliness and an effortless sense of elegance. There is something very Italian about the idea that smelling good should never feel like an excessive effort. Elegance is often associated with being polished, but never ostentatious.
Then there is the tradition of aftershave. For generations, fragrance has been part of a male ritual of grooming: shaving, taking care of your skin, and finishing with a splash of cologne. So the fragrance becomes more than a way of attracting others; it becomes an act of self-care. There is something very beautiful in that idea of smelling good first of all for yourself.
On the feminine side, I think the rose carries a particularly strong cultural meaning. Italian culture has been profoundly influenced by Catholicism, and the rose has a long symbolic relationship with the feminine and, in particular, with the Virgin Mary. The association between roses, purity, beauty, devotion and femininity has therefore become part of a much broader cultural vocabulary.
Of course, these are cultural codes rather than rules. But they help explain why certain olfactory sensations can immediately feel “Italian” to us.
If I had to simplify it, I would say that Italian elegance often smells clean but not sterile, refined but not excessive, sensual but not necessarily loud. Citrus, aromatic herbs, iris, rose, woods and soft musks can all participate in this idea of elegance.
And perhaps what makes the Italian olfactory identity particularly fascinating is this balance between beauty and restraint: the desire to be noticed, but never to look as though you tried too hard.
IF YOU WERE TO GIVE ADVICE TO PERSONAL SHOPPERS AND STYLISTS WHO WANT TO COME ACROSS AS CONFIDENT WHEN MEETING CLIENTS OR COMMUNICATING WITH BRANDS, WHICH FRAGRANCE NOTES WOULD YOU RECOMMEND PAYING ATTENTION TO?
If I had to recommend one note, I would probably say musk.
Musk has a very interesting quality: it creates presence without necessarily demanding attention. It can feel clean, polished, intimate and reassuring, which I think are all qualities that work beautifully when meeting a client or communicating with a brand.
For me, confidence in fragrance doesn’t necessarily mean smelling powerful or intense. Sometimes the most confident person in the room is the one whose fragrance makes you want to come closer rather than the one who fills the entire room.
Musk can create that effect. It feels like a second skin, discreet, sophisticated and contemporary. And for a personal stylist, I think that is particularly important. Your fragrance should complement your presence, not compete with it.
I have a collection of more than 500 perfumes, so I have to be honest: my olfactory wardrobe is less of a wardrobe and more of a beautiful disaster. But despite having so many fragrances, there are a few that have a very special place in my heart and that I instinctively reach for when something really matters.
The three that I would consider my fragrances of the heart are Portrait of a Lady by Frédéric Malle, Colonia by Acqua di Parma, and Shalimar L’Essence by Guerlain.
They are very different from one another, but they all represent something deeply connected to me. They are the fragrances I wear for important occasions, when I want to feel completely myself and, above all, when I know I won't get it wrong.
I think that says something interesting about perfume: even when you have hundreds of possibilities, there are always a few scents that become almost a form of emotional security. You don't choose them because they are new or because they are trending. You choose them because they already know who you are.
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