“The moment I start working on a new scent,” says fragrance creator Antonia Bellanca, “it’s like a tidal wave. I become so immersed in making it.” Bellanca, who has been making high-end scents sold in stores like Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York for 16 years now, is about to begin research on her fourth scent. The impetus comes from 10-year-old daughter Tess.
Her three current perfumes — Antonia’s Flowers, Floret and Tiempe Passate — are carried in over 200 stores in the States and in Europe, but her business, based in Osterville, Mass., on the Nantucket Sound, remains small. “We are a teeny business,” says Bellanca. “I oversee everything — new products, sales and marketing. I’m like Lucille Ball,” she jokes.
Bellanca, who studied art in Boston and in France, admired the flower markets in Paris filled with freesia, poppies and anemones — so much so that she decided to open her own flower shop in East Hampton, N.Y., in 1981. The dramatic and original blooms from Antonia’s Flowers graced the tables of the Hamptons elite at parties and weddings. But Bellanca wanted to capture the smell of the shop in a bottle. After three years of research she unveiled her first scent, Antonia’s Flowers, in 1985.
She will begin work on Tess’s Flowers this summer, taking her daughter, who has been blessed with the same discerning nose, to France with her to help with this labor of love. “Tess has been around this business for so long. She comes here to the office after school to do her homework, so she has absorbed everything about it. She told me the other day that she knows what notes [ingredients] she wants in her scent.”
Making a new fragrance, says Bellanca, is a very “organic process. It’s really when I feel like doing it, which is counter to what is typical in this business. Our nickname in the industry is ‘the un-perfume company.’ It’s a profitable business because there are people who enjoy my point of view.”
That point of view includes keeping in touch with the customer. The Website she launched a year and a half ago, about this is both informational and educational. She helps people from across the map find a store near them that carries her products, thereby strengthening the relationship with her stores; if no shop is close by, she can sell to customers directly. “If a woman reads about us in a magazine, they can find out more about us and where to buy on the Website.” The gregarious artist loves responding to customer e-mails, too, and will from time to time even pick up the 800 line if no one else does. “We get the best letters, and I love chit-chatting with customers,” she says frankly, as if more entrepreneurs ought to try it.
The sales hat of the many she wears involves more talking — to the stores that stock her fragrances, which insiders say enjoy a cultlike following. Her marketing duties also mean creating packaging and handling public relations. “Because my background was in art I am really into packaging and the way the product looks. I hire fine artists and graphic artists to design the boxes. It’s always a collaboration.”
When it’s time to make a new scent, Bellanca submits a list of the must-haves to the perfumers, giving them as much direction as possible. “They are the geniuses who put it all together — the mad scientists, really, the unsung heroes.” The perfumers concoct the formulations, then Bellanca comes back to sniff and decide which combination will be the final fragrance. “It may take weeks or months to come up with something. I always tell them, don’t make it smell like anything out there. I came to this business having never worn fragrance before, and most of my customers say the same thing — mine is the first they have worn. So I tell the perfumers that before they start.”
When the final potion is ready, Bellanca even sources the original juices that go into the bottle. Then the process starts all over again — packaging is developed, and it’s time to get on the phone to send the new scent to the shelves.
A Rare Flower Named Antonia Bellanca
Making a new fragrance, says Bellanca, is a very “organic process. It’s really when I feel like doing it, which is counter to what is typical in this business. Our nickname in the industry is ‘the un-perfume company.’ It’s a profitable business because there are people who enjoy my point of view.”
That point of view includes keeping in touch with the customer. The Website she launched a year and a half ago, AntoniasFlowers.com, is both informational and educational. She helps people from across the map find a store near them that carries her products, thereby strengthening the relationship with her stores; if no shop is close by, she can sell to customers directly. “If a woman reads about us in a magazine, they can find out more about us and where to buy on the Website.” The gregarious artist loves responding to customer e-mails, too, and will from time to time even pick up the 800 line if no one else does. “We get the best letters, and I love chit-chatting with customers,” she says frankly, as if more entrepreneurs ought to try it.
The sales hat of the many she wears involves more talking — to the stores that stock her fragrances, which insiders say enjoy a cultlike following. Her marketing duties also mean creating packaging and handling public relations. “Because my background was in art I am really into packaging and the way the product looks. I hire fine artists and graphic artists to design the boxes. It’s always a collaboration.”
When it’s time to make a new scent, Bellanca submits a list of the must-haves to the perfumers, giving them as much direction as possible. “They are the geniuses who put it all together — the mad scientists, really, the unsung heroes.” The perfumers concoct the formulations, then Bellanca comes back to sniff and decide which combination will be the final fragrance. “It may take weeks or months to come up with something. I always tell them, don’t make it smell like anything out there. I came to this business having never worn fragrance before, and most of my customers say the same thing — mine is the first they have worn. So I tell the perfumers that before they start.”
When the final potion is ready, Bellanca even sources the original juices that go into the bottle. Then the process starts all over again — packaging is developed, and it’s time to get on the phone to send the new scent to the shelves.