Gents' scents, Italian style

Classic perfumes for men were created in the ’60s, reached their apotheosis in the power era of the ’80s, and got kinder and gentler in the ’90s, when unisex scents were all the rage. The ’00s saw the disturbing rise of the sport fragrance — those “freshly showered,” cologne-like formulations for men that are inoffensive but also faceless and generic, like a Ken doll amid a whole shelf full of Ken dolls you can’t tell apart.

Which is why Acca Kappa’s masculine fragrances immediately caught my olfactive attention. Thus far there are only two of them but they brought me straight back to the classics of the ’60s, when men were men and not metrosexuals playing around with floral notes and gender roles.

With its sleek leather accord, the cologne 1869, whose name pays tribute to the Italian house’s history, reminds me of those guapo fragrances of the ’80s, when a couple of spritzes on a male jaw had the same powers of seduction as the Armani-clad Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

Its alter-ego, Cedro, a resolutely woody but very modern juice, is what I imagine young fathers would wear: it’s as comforting as a shoulder to lean on, as dependable as the family breadwinner … a gentleman to the last.

“Cedro is a really nice fragrance,” agrees Acca Kappa president Elisa Gera, who was in town recently to open Acca Kappa’s first lifestyle boutique in Rustan’s Makati. “It’s our bestseller for men.”

Though the store’s vibe is simple, clean, unisex, and perfectly in tune with Acca Kappa’s philosophy, there’s a whole wall devoted to gents’ scents, body care, and shaving accessories. It’s an essential grooming and beauty stop for the whole family because there’s something for everybody: while dad checks out the male merch, mom can sniff Calycanthus and Acca Kappa’s other floral hits while kids can choose from colored toothbrushes just like the one Oprah uses. And, of course, everyone loves White Moss (Muschio Bianco in Italian), because it’s so light and fresh, smells so heavenly and seems tailor-made for our tropical climate.

The single-brand boutique is only the third in Asia, after two that Gera recently launched in Hong Kong. Featuring most of Acca Kappa’s range of hairbrushes, body care, hair care and fragrances, “eventually all our stores are going to be boutiques like this,” Gera says. “They have a Venetian style because we are from Venice.”

Acca Kappa is already known as an Italian lifestyle brand, but in a few years they may be known as an all-natural Italian lifestyle brand.

“We are now developing natural fragrances,” Gera notes. “Since we are Italian, we just want to use Italian fragrances that come from our countryside, like the white moss, which is our signature. We also use lavender and juniper and these are really Mediterranean fragrances that remind you of Italy. Calycanthus, which is another fragrance, grows in Italian gardens. I myself have a very big garden so I really like the fragrances of my flowers and try to get inspiration from them.”

For the manufacture of its hairbrushes, Acca Kappa also started using sustainable materials in the last few years like rainforest wood, rubber (and not PVC), and it is now changing all the ingredients in its body care, eliminating parabens in favor of natural ingredients. “We can’t be 100-percent-natural, but at least 90-percent-natural,” Gera laughs.

In a market where niche brands seem to get more mainstream and average by the year, Acca Kappa maintains its exclusive luxury status by being selective about the distribution of its products, exerting strict quality control (everything is made in Treviso, Italy) and, most importantly, remaining a family-run brand.

“It’s not a multinational,” Gera stresses. “Many niche brands belong to multinationals and they’re not family companies anymore. We are really handmade and unique in the market because we’re family-run and we combine Italian-made accessories with body care.”

The “family” Gera talks about in reality consists of just her: though she’s married with two young children, it is Gera who has single-handedly run the company for 20 years.

It was her great-grandfather, Herman Krüll, who started a brush business in 1869. “He was German and moved to Italy as a very young student, and he fell in love with the country,” she relates. Back then they produced brushes for grooming horses, hats, and shoes. That evolved to hairbrushes and toothbrushes, then about 15 years ago, “since we were exporting so much, we introduced body products because we were asked by our clients to have high-quality Italian body-care products.”

Named after its founder’s initials, Acca Kappa is now one of the biggest producers of high-quality hairbrushes in the world, with 10 stores globally, over a thousand outlets in Italy, and a yearly turnover of seven million euros (50 percent of which comes from Italy and 50 percent from export).

“Asia is 30 percent of our export market so there is still a lot to grow still,” says Gera, who is in the process of expanding Acca Kappa to China and countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. “Asia for us is a very important market, and the Philippines is one of the important countries in Asia.”

Acca Kappa fans will love the latest launch, Blue Lavender, another fresh, soapy-clean fragrance in the vein of White Moss that will soon be available as a shower gel and velvety creams for body and hands.

Also coming soon is the bracing Green Mandarin, “then we’ll launch some very specific skincare products that will be natural and organic,” Gera says.

For such a high-powered businesswoman, it’s surprising when Gera calls her lifestyle “very simple. I work a lot but then on the weekends I really love being in my garden and gardening.”

Her backyard, which is comparable in size to a hill, has an olive grove that provides Gera her own oil, a vegetable patch and more than 300 varieties of rose. “Sometimes I’m stressed because of work and this really recharges me, and I get inspiration from all the smells and flowers. Now when I go back they will be blooming already.”

Just like Acca Kappa.

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The Acca Kappa lifestyle boutique is located on the first floor of Rustan’s Makati, in the corridor going to Glorietta 2.