Meet Réservation, Francesco Ragazzi’s New, Richly Scented Gig After Palm Angels
MILAN — Francesco Ragazzi popped up on the screen for a Teams call relaxed and happy.
“Very happy — an important chapter of my life just closed and I have the great fortune to start a new one, with a project I really care about and that represents one of my passions,” Ragazzi told WWD earlier this month, just a few days after exiting Palm Angels. As reported, he left the luxury streetwear brand he founded in 2015 and where served as creative director following Bluestar Alliance LLC’s acquisition of the company from New Guards Group.
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But Ragazzi is not the type of man who twiddles his thumbs. At Milan Fashion Week, he is officially launching his new gig Réservation, a brand of high-end fragrances inspired by travel and winking to the world of hospitality. To be unveiled with a presentation on Wednesday at the brand’s new headquarters in tony Via Montenapoleone, the project is backed by Pietro Ruffini’s investment company Archive Srl and sees the involvement of the former brand director of Hôtel Costes, Frédérique Obin, among others.
“I see my career as a journey and I’m happy to have reached this point because I wanted to create something with staying power,” Ragazzi said. “Creating a fragrance is not like designing a fashion collection, which after six months already feels old. It’s about developing something that has to last, that transcends the moment….Something that is timeless, strong and recognizable, which kind of gives me more satisfaction [to create].”
An Early Fascination
Ragazzi said he has been fascinated by the world of fragrances since his childhood and, growing up, as a consumer because scents are “all about leaving a mark without even being present.” His olfactory explorations grew deeper five years ago during COVID-19, when he started to study the industry up close and realized there was a gap for appealing storytelling to match the complexities and sophistication behind ingredients and formulations.
“I wanted to bring a narrative — one linked to an imaginary hotel, a place that could allow us to tell different stories, places and therefore scents. Hence the name Réservation, which also suggests something exclusive and ties well with another of my passions, that is hospitality,” Ragazzi said.
The concept and related aesthetic he had in mind blended travel, memory and a sense of discovery based around a decadent, secretive scenario evoking a Californian hotel with a ‘70s vibe, made up of charming suites, poolside escapes and firelit rendezvous.
Ragazzi and Ruffini’s shared love of hospitality and fragrances — as well as Ragazzi’s longtime affiliation with the Ruffini family, tracing back to his beginnings at Moncler — encouraged the two to join forces, adding Réservation to the portfolio of the Archive investment firm that holds stakes in the likes of The Attico, Langosteria Holding, Concettina ai Tre Santi and Pas Normal Studios.
“The purpose of Archive is to support disruptive entrepreneurs and their path to establish new creative languages. Perfumery is a universe we love and that embeds strong potential,” said Ruffini, chief executive officer of the company controlled by his family holding Ou(R) Group. “With the investment we continue our mission to support the growth of new concepts established around values of creativity, innovation and authenticity,” he added.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but it is understood shares are equally split between Ragazzi and Archive.
“We wanted to do something new for us, with the right positioning and based on the utmost quality,” said Ragazzi, underscoring he was already plotting five years ago to keep the project separate from Palm Angels.
The New Team
His fashion brand also had deep Californian roots, but for Réservation he wanted to intertwine his penchant for American hedonism with French flair, elegance and know-how. No wonder he decided to tap Obin as artistic director of the brand and leverage her expertise in hotels, fashion and fragrance. Obin played a pivotal role in defining the lifestyle identity of Paris’ iconic Hôtel Costes while she was brand director from 2011 to 2017. Since 2017, she has also collaborated with Thom Browne, contributing to the brand’s fragrance line and home collection.
Renowned nose Yann Vasnier is also part of the Réservation team. He is master perfumer at Givaudan, the company that two years ago enabled Ragazzi to end his search for a personal fragrance by creating for him a special woody scent that he said has become his trademark and “super power.”
Ragazzi’s own fragrance and part of its ingredients inspired “Suite 909,” the signature scent of Réservation, which is launching with a line of seven perfumes. All created by Vasnier, the scents cover different tastes and imagine different moments of a day spent at the imaginary hotel, from a walk in the garden and a morning at the pool side to the golden hour time spent by a firepit and late night relaxation.
Conceived for nostalgic romantics, the spicy and aromatic juice of “Suite 909” aims to evoke smoke, leather and lemon by blending the likes of Georgywood, Akigalawood — a natural resin of patchouli billed as unique to the brand — and black pepper from Madagascar, among others.
A Lineup of Exotic Fragrances
Coming with evocative names and glass bottles topped by different-colored hexagonal caps embossed with the brand’s crest, the line also includes: “Jasmine Haze,” mixing the likes of jasmine sambac absolute, bergamot, patchouli and musk; “Bleu Piscine,” featuring fresh and zingy notes of lime, mandarin, juniper berries, geranium and vetiver; the smoky “Feu De Rose” scent, blending cedarwood, rose absolute, styrax and leather accord with spicy nutmeg and clove; “Chambre Secrete,” combining vanilla, frankincense and Akigalawood, among others; “Late Night,” mixing cardamom, sandalwood and patchouli with hints of tobacco and leather notes, and “Riviera Californienne,” blending amberwood with the likes of Arabica coffee and tonka bean.
All retailing at 250 euros for the single 100-ml. size save for the “Suite 909” signature scent priced at 290 euros, the fragrances will launch on March 3 on the brand’s e-commerce and as part of an exclusive with Violet Grey, both at its store at Melrose Place in Los Angeles and online. Starting March 24, the collection will also hit the shelves of a selection of retailers in Europe and U.S., with Ragazzi already plotting the launch of a series of dedicated shops-in-shop. The plan is to target both specialist perfume retailers and fashion ones since he sees Réservation as a lifestyle brand.
Asked about a real extension into hospitality, Ragazzi said that at the moment this is only part of the narrative of the brand, but one that offers the base to build “a bigger project upon it, that can perpetuate this cross-pollination across industries.”
The multidisciplinary approach has always marked Ragazzi’s career. The Palm Angels brand itself stemmed from a photographic exploration of L.A.’s skate culture and a book he published in 2014, which featured his dreamlike images of the sun-saturated local scene and a foreword by Pharrell Williams.
While the brand had been sitting out fashion weeks in recent seasons, in September last year Palm Angels took part in Milan Fashion Week to unveil a photography exhibition marking the launch of a new book, “Decoding Palm Culture,” published by Rizzoli New York.
A graduate in fashion communication from Milan’s IED Istituto Europeo di Design school, Ragazzi worked for Moncler for nine years before being tapped as one of the guest designers of the Moncler Genius project and also logged in collaborations with Tod’s, among others.
“Fashion still interests me but now I’m fully focused on this project now,” he said. “I’ve started with photography and it got me to launch a fashion brand. Maybe we are now creating a fragrance label and we will end up with an hotel.”
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