Acqua di Parma
Through the Eyes of
CEO Giulio Bergamaschi

(Heritage) Something in the signature yellow of Acqua di Parma’s packaging immediately signals the warm, enveloping world the brand seeks to create—drawing on an Italian palette of golden citrus and sun-ripened fruits.

Founded in 1916 by Baron Carlo Magnani, Acqua di Parma started life in the northern Italian city of its name with its signature Colonia—the country’s first proper eau de cologne. Over time, the company evolved into a collection of fragrances that trace some of the most evocative corners of the bel paese, from Panarea to Capri.

In the 1990s, the brand passed into the hands of three of Italy’s most prominent entrepreneurs—Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, then president of Ferrari; Diego Della Valle, of Tod’s; and Paolo Borgomanero, owner of La Perla—before being acquired by luxury giant LVMH in 2001. Yet for CEO Giulio Bergamaschi, the priority has remained clear: to preserve Acqua di Parma as the niche, uncompromisingly high-quality House it has always been, one that retains a distinct old-world charm.

Having spent years at Loro Piana and L’Oreal before taking the reins in 2023, Bergamaschi brings business acumen and an instinctive feel for the allure of the Italian “art of living,” and how to translate it into objects of desire. That vision extends beyond new fragrances or limited-edition scents crafted with painstaking techniques such as spugnatura, a sponge-based citrus extraction still performed by hand in Calabria. It also encompasses an expanding universe—from shaving kits to scented candles and small leather goods—each developed in collaboration with designers he selects personally.

As the House marks its 110th anniversary, Bergamaschi reflects on the alchemy behind not only its fragrances but its enduring appeal, speaking from a serene office within a leafy, former mid-century factory just a stone’s throw from Milan’s atmospheric Naviglio.

MAISON Ë The word heritage is very important for brands everywhere, but in Italy it carries particular weight. What does heritage mean to you?

GIUlIO BERGAMSCHI There are brands that have a lot of heritage and use it as a time machine to travel towards nostalgia; other brands don’t have a heritage and still create an artificial time machine to travel to a nostalgic past that doesn’t exist. Our case is different. We are consistent; we made it across 110 years, gliding above trends and hype. This time has made who we are more stratified; it helps us find purpose, meaning, and inspiration, but I never want this heritage to be something that holds us back in the past.

M.Ë Consistency is also tricky. I’m sure there are people who would like for you to never change and stay true to everything that you’ve represented up until this point. How does that work in the context of having to evolve?

G.B. Panta rei—everything flows. One of the biggest dangers today is being afraid to move on. You can move on and keep consistency at the same time; the latter is not about what you create in the everyday, but it’s about your values. As long as you are true to your origins, your personality, you can be consistent. My job as CEO is to transmit those values decade after decade, making sure that they remain relevant for the people after us. The way we communicate has to evolve, but the way we think about ourselves should not change.

M.Ë Practically speaking, what does that mean for the brand? You have expanded into new product categories, for example—but when you first started in this position, what was the idea of change that you had in mind?

G.B. It consists, on one hand, of pursuing a journey of coming back to the origins of what the Maison truly is. On the other hand, it’s about fully exploring and stretching the potential of this identity—where probably it’s never been pushed before. Acqua di Parma was born in 1916 as a fragrance that embodied Italian elegance and the art of living. If you think about the names of our most famous fragrances—Arancia di Capri, Fico di Amalfi—you always have one ingredient and one dreamy Italian location; scent and art of living, together. Those two identities are what makes this brand so rich.

What we are doing now is rooting this idea in the best possible craft and techniques that are about to get lost. Take for example spugnatura, a way to extract the essence from citrus by using sponges. It’s very costly and time-consuming, but fantastic in terms of quality, the opposite of industrialization. The work we’re doing today is exploring further and further the meaning of the concept of sprezzatura, something that was very dear to Acqua di Parma’s founder, Carlo Magnani. It’s a word that was born in 1528, defining how a gentleman should behave to be seen as well-educated: the art of making the complex look simple. It’s about concealing the effort; it’s an elegance that is refined, simple, and looks light.

M.Ë It’s also notoriously hard to achieve.

G.B. It’s a difficult equation where you want the three ingredients to dialogue well. The problem with refinement, simplicity, and lightness is that if you under-index one of them, you’re going to come up with something that is not as sharp or interesting. If you only focus on simple and light, you’re going to land on something banal. If you focus on refined and simple, you’re probably going to land on something that is not very relevant for today, or that can be repetitive or boring. Our ability to constantly keep those ingredients in balance, changing the proportions from time to time, is key. The way I choose the noses and designers who work with us is about their ability to play with those three ingredients, using them to enhance Italian craft.

M.Ë How do these collaborations come about? Are you personally involved?

G.B. It’s about curation. I bring the vision in what the aesthetics and direction of Acqua di Parma should be. So, yes, I am personally involved. Some of it has got to do with whether they resonate with our values, some is intuition, and probably a bit of chemistry. I personally meet the designers, and I try and understand their willingness to take risks in terms of creativity, to bring their perspective into the House. The House doesn’t change, it is reinterpreted through a different lens every time.

M.Ë What does Italian-ness mean to you today, and why do you think it’s so integral still to the identity of the brand?

G.B. When we talk about Italian-ness we’re not talking about holding a passport, but about a certain way of seeing the world—it’s what you value. If you live with attention, with mindfulness, with presence, and with lightness, those characteristics are what Italians and people that love Italy cherish. It’s this capability of living the everyday with depth, with meaning, with a certain exigence, also in quality. It’s the importance of certain rituals, of the human connection, of finding beauty in the great and in the small things; in giving meaning to the everyday and making every moment worth it. This suspended intensity is slow in terms of time but is thick and rich in terms of culture.

M.Ë What kind of leader do you think that you are for this company?

G.B. I think that my biggest challenge as a leader is not getting caught by routine. It’s trying to keep your head above the water to see what is happening ahead. What is the direction? How do you get constantly inspired? How do you constantly challenge even the most obvious convictions in order not to drown or get stuck?

M.Ë Where do you get that inspiration?

G.B. Culture is important—with a capital C or small c. It’s about talking to people who know much more than you about architecture, design, history, archaeology, philosophy. It’s going to a museum, it’s reading books. It’s always being interested in what is happening, but it’s also being curious, talking with everyone. An easy chat can conceal a lot of wisdom and help you see things in a very different way. I want to be like a sponge: at its best when it’s used every day, and also squeezed. But the moment you stop using it… well, probably you need to change sponge.

M.Ë In a world that’s increasingly moving towards the digital, something that is very sensorial feels very attractive. How do you see the fragrance segment fitting into a new world of luxury?

G.B. Yes, the world is becoming more and more digital, but people are in growing need of experience. Think about the boom of the economy linked to hospitality and travel. In this logic, fragrance is very relevant to this idea of experiencing luxury, it’s linked to emotion and to travel. Digital will deliver some information and reach you cannot have offline, but you will need offline to still to have a deeper connection. A channel like boutiques and great department stores is fundamental to creating this bridge with clients.

M.Ë How do you think the way people use fragrance is changing?

G.B. Historically, fragrances were a social marker, an effective signature. In the past, a person used to have one fragrance almost for their whole life. Now, especially with younger clients, we see more and more that the behavior is changing. Younger people like to change the way they smell much more frequently. There are innovation trends that are client driven: they can wear one or two fragrances at the same time, either layered or worn in different areas of their body. It’s a very alive industry.

M.Ë How do you see the long-term future of this brand—in terms of how it can expand both geographically and in product terms?

G.B. We could talk about where we’re going to open our next boutique, or where we’ve just opened—in Paraggi, close to Portofino. In the last couple of years, we have opened beautiful boutiques in Paris, in Florence, in Saint Tropez. For sure, we’re only scratching the surface in many markets—I’m thinking about America or the Middle East, for instance. But rather than speaking about how we’re going to develop commercially, what counts the most is how we’re going to develop from a cultural standpoint. The biggest challenge I have as a CEO of this company is not only to develop fragrances, to stretch what the art of living means for Acqua di Parma, but how to embody a statement of Italianity and the Italian art of living—and how to make it relevant for people who think alike in the rest of the world.