‘Excuse me, what is that you’re wearing?’

One of the reasons we wear fragrance is to get noticed. Of course we want to smell good. Sure, we love feeling fresh. But nothing beats getting tapped on the shoulder by some (hopefully decent-looking) stranger who was mesmerized as you walked by, and being asked, "Excuse me, what is that you’re wearing?"

This happens to Inno Sotto all the time when he wears his favorite scent from his own line, Inno Sotto Mondo (ISM). Unfortunately Inno refuses to reveal which scent that is, but let’s do a little detective work.

In 2004, Inno and Rustan’s launched three ISM fragrances: Huit, Miro and Deauville.

It’s apparent that Inno has a soft spot for the elegantly complex Huit, which is the number "eight" in French. "I’ve always liked it because it suggests the figure, the shape, of a woman, and my work certainly has a lot to do with women’s clothing," he says.

The playful Miro was inspired by the vibrant, colorful paintings of Spanish artist Joan Miro.

Fresh, green Deauville is named after a resort in France that is one of Inno’s favorite places.

"Normally I use Deauville in the daytime; Huit or Miro in the later hours," Inno reveals in his most telling clue.

Rustan’s executives traveling abroad have also experienced the Inno effect: getting noticed and stopped while wearing ISM. It just goes to show that, whether in fashion or in fragrance, Sotto’s taste level is unerring, and with ISM he is doing something so different it smells new and intriguing even to sophisticated Western noses.

"I think it’s because the fragrances are distinct," muses Sotto. "I don’t think they smell like anything on the market now because most fragrances on the market now smell generic, smell alike, and I wanted it to have a certain personality."

With characteristic timing, Sotto is launching two new ISM scents that seem perfectly tailored to summer. Baiser, which means "kiss" in French, is a light floral scent dominated by citrus notes and orange blossom. Upon first spray it smells airy and clean, but a vanillic note of coumarin adds just the right touch of depth and mystery.

Abbracio, which is Italian for "embrace," starts with a refreshing blast of lemon, but deepens to a warm, soothing, very sensual base of amber.

With their invigorating citrus top notes, both scents are light and cooling for day, but warm, complex, and snuggly enough for evening as well. Inno designed them with our humid tropical climate in mind.

"The first thing people said to me when they smelled the fragrances was, ‘Aren’t they a little too light for something that’s passionate?’" Inno relates. "But I always tell them a kiss can also be tender; an embrace can also be very gentle and comforting."

While the first three fragrances had to do with places Inno’s seen, paintings he’s appreciated and the number eight — for Inno a symbol of balance in life — Baiser and Abbracio are inspired by more deeply personal things: "It has to do more with my nature as a person, what I’m like," he says. "I’m naturally a touchy-kissy sort of person. I’m affectionate, I sleep with 17 pillows — I’m not joking. I grew up with my grandmother, separate from the rest of my siblings, and to make sure I never fell off the bed, I always had pillows around me."

All ISM fragrances are made in Grasse, France, the perfume capital of the world, from the essences down to the cellophane that wraps the boxes. "The only thing Filipino is the brand name," Sotto says proudly. In developing ISM with a French nose, the most interesting part was the process of choosing fragrances. "It is easy for anyone to describe a color, a shape, a form, but to actually describe a scent is almost impossible," he says.

When Inno met the nose in charge, the most difficult thing for him was to describe the type of fragrances he preferred, so the nose asked him to list at least 10 fragrances he really liked. "For each and every one of us, what really registers is something in the memory bank — something in your childhood. So when asked what does it smell like — fresh sheets or something in the morning — that’s so difficult because my sheets and somebody else’s sheets might not smell the same."

Originally conceived as a line of men’s fragrances, ISM has since gained unisex cachet and a cult following of females who want to stand out and smell different from the pack.

"When I was asked to list down the 10 fragrances I liked, one of the first three I listed down was Green Water by Jacques Fath," reveals Inno. "It was really a men’s fragrance, but it was actually used by a lot of women, as Acca Kappa is used by a lot of women. So I have to admit a lot of women use the fragrance, as do a lot of men."

ISM’s packaging has changed, not only to make the bottles more portable but also to meet the now-very-strict requirements for exporting fragrance. According to ISM’s brand manager Jeffrey Santos, many retailers within Southeast Asia and Korea have already expressed interest and been inquiring about the brand. "We had to repackage and list every single fragrance ingredient on the outside of the box to cater to their needs," he says.

In the future, ISM could expand to bed and bath — to scented candles and maybe even soaps — but right now Inno wants to concentrate on the fragrances. So far he’s released only five of the nine fragrances that have already been created.

While I wait for those designer candles and the ultimate ISM pillow, which for sure will be soft as a cloud, huggable, freshly scented, and keep me from falling off the bed, I will keep Baiser for my own personal use, and give Abbracio to my husband, as I have to admit it smells a lot sexier on him.

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Inno Sotto Mondo Baiser and Abbracio are both available in 100 ml eau extreme sprays for P1,950 each at Rustan’s Essenses.