Scent and Memory Are At The Heart of Zegna’s First Fragrance Collection in Twenty Years

IN WHAT SHOULD COME as a surprise to absolutely no one, the Italian Alps are breathtaking this time of year. As I soak in the magnificent kaleidoscope of colors (and mind you, the foliage hasn’t even hit its peak yet), I’m in awe of the fact that this very landscape was once barren, nothing but cold, jagged rock. Bled dry by the needs of a country engaged in a massive world war, the area’s natural resources had been whittled down to practically nothing, a far cry from the picturesque landscape I’m currently surveying.

Today, I’m standing in a vast nature preserve called Oasi Zegna, named after the man who restored the area to its wild and wonderful roots when he planted nearly 500,000 trees within the region’s one hundred square kilometers in the 1930s. That man, Ermenegildo Zegna, was born and raised in the nearby town of Trivero, where he founded his namesake textiles and, eventually, menswear brand. The reforestation effort says a lot about Zegna the man and his connection to the land of his birth. He did it knowing he’d never live to see the project reach its full potential. Instead, I’m the one who gets to take it all in.

With this story, this setting, as a backdrop, Zegna the brand has released its first foray into fragrance in nearly 20 years, a six-scent collection called Memorie—that’s ‘memory,’ in Italian. Created with global beauty partnerships agency Give Back Beauty and perfumers Dominique Ropion, Fabrice Pellegrin, and Quentin Bisch, the collection offers a range of scent profiles and accords, some common and accessible, others daring and esoteric.

Memorie is an olfactory ode to Zegna’s founding story and the beautiful part of Italy the company still calls home. Each fragrance tells a different part of that story—from the scent of the ink wafting from the newspaper that Mr. Zegna read every morning to the aroma of the glass of ratafia he drank in the evening—and pays homage to the surrounding area. “Fragrances are probably the first moment anyone in the world can feel the brand, very quickly and with a lot of emotion,” says Alessandro Sartori, Zegna’s longtime creative director. “The ultimate goal is to help people experience the brand through fragrance and we felt like six was the minimum number of scents needed to tell our story.”

It’s a concept rooted in well-established biology: There’s a powerful, visceral connection between scent and memory—if you’ve ever caught a whiff of something that smells a bit rosy and were immediately transported back to your grandmother’s house when you were a child, you already know that. At the same time, it’s a radical departure from how most brands promote and think of fragrance. Rather than focusing on specific notes or fragrance families (woody, sporty, fresh), Zegna is focused on storytelling, creating vignettes around each of the scents. “I hope people will select the one that evokes something for them,” Sartori continues. “I think there is space for a different way of thinking [about fragrance]. We have a vision, which is to create an emotion linked to a memory linked to a scent so that you can really feel these fragrances.”

That storytelling is front and center in the brand’s campaign for Memorie, starring impossibly cool actor Mads Mikkelson and written by Roman Coppola and directed by Boramy Viguier. Mikkelson takes us through each of the six scents by exploring the places and memories associated with each one—reading the newspaper in the original office of Ermenegildo Zegna, taking a drive along Panoramica Zegna, the road that cuts through the heart of the Oasi, sitting back in a well-worn club chair with that glass of ratafia. These vignettes provide a tangible example of how each of the Memorie fragrances are woven into the fabric of the Zegna story.

So, about those fragrances. At the risk of reducing Sartori’s vision to a mundane discussion of notes, I’ll do my best, considering the limitations of this medium, to bring each to life. Ropion’s Il Calamaio is an audacious opener, blending an ink accord with rose absolute and oud to evoke Mr. Zegna’s morning newspaper ritual. To me, it’s the most arcane, a peculiar mix of heady flower and rich oud, with the sharpness from the ink accord. Next, Pellegrin’s Il Lanificio takes us inside Zegna’s famed woolen mills, balancing a suede accord with sweet vanilla and earthy sandalwood. I had the pleasure of seeing the brand’s looms and fabric artists at work in Trivero, and a whiff of Il Lanificio brings me right back to the hustle and bustle of the mill floor.

From there, things veer into more approachable territory. Unsurprisingly, Memorie’s most popular scent is A Trivero, a light, fresh blend of lavender, rose, and myrrh, a classic scent combination known as a fougere. From the mind of Bisch, it’s a crowd pleaser that will resonate with most guys and can easily take you from a day at your desk to an evening date. Pellegrin’s Il Sottobosco is meant to evoke the crispness of the surrounding nature—wet forest leaves, pine, dirt—with pink pepper, carrot seeds, and patchouli. The highlight for this writer is La Panoramica, named after Oasi Zegna’s signature byway. Another fougere, this time by Ropion, it's brighter and more comforting (I think it’s the pine).

The finisher, Saga Del Piedmonte, is as bold as you’d want it to be, taking you inside Villa Zegna, the home of Ermenegildo, after a long day of work. You can almost feel the heat of the fireplace—thanks to smoky cedarwood—and the smooth swallow of his evening cocktail (where a coffee accord meets notes of ratafia). Pellegrin’s second contribution to the project is warm and lush. This one feels perfectly tailored to a chilly autumn evening. It’s worth noting that each scent is refillable.

For a collection so rooted in precise flashes of a particular life, I find all the scents to be so evocative of my own experience. The two fougeres take me back to the summers between my college years, working a day job in an over-air-conditioned mall. Il Sottobosco transports me to the fall I moved to Brooklyn, evoking brisk runs through Prospect Park. And that, of course, is Sartori’s vision for Memorie, to use snippets of Mr. Zegna’s life to create lasting recollections of your own.

And it works. With every spritz of A Trivero, I’m back in Italy, admiring the undulating Alps and my own experience in Oasi Zega.

The Zegna Memorie collection is available in selected Zegna retail locations and on zegna.com.