Sexuality is a fundamental and integral part of the human being. Sexuality can take many forms, but like many things in life, to fully understand it, it needs to be confronted, examined, practiced and sometimes even experimented with. This means crossing into unfamiliar territory – often we can surprise ourselves when we discover new likes, interests and pleasures we never knew we were into. By doing so we redefine the frontiers of our sexual comfort zone, ultimately redrawing the outer limits of what constitutes ‘us’.
Italian avant-garde designer and perfumer Filippo Sorcinelli is no stranger to overstepping lines and pushing sexual boundaries. Sorcinelli is a broodingly masculine figure at the centre of his own brand. With his ripped torso, tattoos and darkly gothic look, he has a distinctly queer sensibility lying somewhere between Rick Owens and Berghain. The aesthetics of transgression are front and centre for Sorcinelli, and he draws attention to its Latin roots: ‘transgredi’, ‘to go across’. For him overstepping lines allows us to expand our sexual selves and even instigate an inner journey towards greater understanding. We ‘lose ourselves in the silence of our own intimacy’ as he poetically puts it. In his latest act of transgression, Sorcinelli has perhaps broken one of our biggest taboos, by connecting Catholic spirituality with transgressive sex.
What many fans of his experimental fragrances don’t realize is that Sorcinelli is the Pope’s personal tailor and from his exclusive haute-couture atelier ‘LAVS’ in Rome, he supplies the liturgical gowns and ceremonial frocks for the Vatican. He even made Pope Francis’s inauguration outfit! Sorcinelli’s principal UMUM perfume collection is a divine range of incense-based fragrances with an avant-garde twist. His most iconic scent (also called LAVS) is even sprayed on all the Pope’s sacramental vestments before they are shipped off to the Holy See.
Sorcinelli’s new X SE’ collection, however, based on masturbation, BDSM culture and subversive eroticism is sure to ruffle a few cassocks at the Vatican. If up until now he has kept things ambiguous by artfully negotiating life between two worlds, Sorcinelli has now decisively crossed over into the land of sin. He dubs the 4 new perfumes within the X SE’ range ‘Extraits de Perversion’, a playfully provocative pun on the fact that the scents are ‘Extraits de Parfum’ – the highest quality form of perfume on the market. Blending the exclusive with the trashy and the high with the low, the X SE’ range allows you to indulge in your own personal perfumed transgression, with scent approaching the border blurring aroma of non-normative, queer and fetish-based sex from its own unique angle.
The cyber-sex Extrait de Parfum is an olfactory tribute to non-reproductive and depersonalised sex in front of a computer screen. A blend of potent hormones meets a synthetic accord reminiscent of the plastic whir of a PC hard drive – a fitting tribute to the modern-day love affair between man and machine. The aptly named poppers-pop Extrait de Parfum is a celebration of chemically enhanced sex and an homage to the classic recreational drug sniffed by men who need to loosen up. The heady synthetic hit will certainly ease tight muscles. The cruising-area Extrait de Parfum captures the arousing smell of a moldy sex dungeon – definitely something for doms, subs and all fans of creative and kinky sex. The wonderfully trashy slightly-b!tch Extrait de Parfum is a perfumed ode to the oil-slicked eroticism of roadside sex, with notes of burning tire, smoke, rubber, smudged lipstick and polyester panties. All four fragrances are now available at 7scents Perfumery in Budapest downtown at Magyar utca 18.
Like classic attars, they are applied directly to the skin, while the modern roll-on form allows for easy application on the go and in all situations. Convenient 30ml size allows you to carry them in the smallest pocket, or tucked away in a harness or jockstrap. We just hope Sorcinelli doesn’t reach for the wrong perfume the next time Francis’s threads are getting ready for dispatch!
Mark Cunnigham
