AquaFlor

AquaFlor occupies a distinctive place within Florence’s craft landscape. While the city is often associated with historic institutions and inherited traditions, AquaFlor represents something equally important: the ability of those traditions to generate new work. Founded by master perfumer Sileno Cheloni in 2009, the house draws inspiration from Florence’s long history of apothecaries, botanists and fragrance makers while operating as a contemporary creative workshop.

The setting reinforces this connection. AquaFlor occupies rooms within the Renaissance Palazzo Corsini Antinori Serristori near Piazza Santa Croce, transforming former service spaces and stables into laboratories, ateliers and fragrance rooms. Antique cabinets, glass vessels and vaulted interiors create an atmosphere that recalls Florence’s historical relationship with medicine, alchemy and botanical study without turning the experience into nostalgia.

At the centre of the house is production itself. Fragrances are developed and blended on site using raw materials sourced internationally, with an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than mass production. Cheloni’s approach combines traditional perfumery knowledge with a highly personal creative process, resulting in fragrances that often blur the boundaries between artistic creation and artisanal manufacture.

What makes AquaFlor particularly relevant within Florence is its role in the city’s contemporary perfume renaissance. Rather than preserving historical techniques as museum pieces, the house actively extends them through workshops, bespoke commissions and ongoing experimentation. It demonstrates that Florence’s reputation for craftsmanship is not solely a legacy of the past but remains a living and evolving cultural force.

For NOTES, AquaFlor represents the continuation of a Florentine tradition in modern form: a working laboratory where fragrance, craftsmanship and place remain closely connected.