Filippo Sorcinelli: The Architecture of Silence

Few contemporary creators move as fluently between disciplines as Filippo Sorcinelli. Artist, perfumer, musician, photographer, and founder of LAVS - L’Atelier Vesti Sacre, Sorcinelli has built a body of work where aesthetics and spirituality are inseparable. His creative universe is rooted in sacred tradition yet speaks a distinctly contemporary language - one shaped by silence, architecture, sound, and ritual.

Originally known for his work in sacred vestments for the Vatican and major ecclesiastical institutions, Sorcinelli later expanded his artistic research into perfumery, transforming scent into an invisible architecture capable of carrying memory, transcendence, and emotion. His fragrances, much like his music and visual projects, are conceived not as products, but as experiences - spaces for contemplation that unfold slowly and with intention.

In this interview, Filippo Sorcinelli reflects on the evolution of his signature fragrance LAVS, the relationship between music, Gothic architecture, and olfactory composition, and the challenge of preserving authenticity in an increasingly globalized creative landscape. What emerges is a rare and coherent vision of art as a spiritual act, guided by interiority and responsibility rather than market logic.

1. Your signature fragrance LAVS began as a scent created for sacred vestments and later evolved into a unisex perfume. How did that transformation change your approach to raw materials, composition, and storytelling in perfumery?

From its very beginning, LAVS carried a precise vocation: it was an aromatic breath conceived to accompany the life of the atelier, a bridge between fabric and prayer.When it opened itself to human skin, the fragrance entered a new dimension and invited me to listen with greater amplitude.

The raw materials acquired a richer narrative role: incense, resins, and woods, already rooted in a spiritual horizon, expanded into a form capable of touching personal memory.This transformation shaped a more architectural composition. Aromatic layers create a sensory structure where light and shadow collaborate.

The olfactory writing of LAVS grew closer to music—progressions, accords, verticality—and its narrative now approaches a beauty that evokes transcendence and the profound human desire for it.Its story widened: from the sacristy to daily life, from ritual to skin, from tradition to contemporaneity.

LAVS still preserves its sacred origin, yet now embraces a further presence—the life of those who choose it as a companion on their path.

2. You often describe perfume as an artistic medium — not a commercial product. How do you translate your musical or architectural inspirations (for instance, the organ or Gothic space) into an olfactory structure?

Music and architecture stand among the pillars that shape my olfactory writing.A fragrance is born as a composition, naturally close to the evocative world of a musician.

The deeper synthetic register is constructed with resins, woods, and balsams, supporting the fragrance like a resonant base.The higher register—citrus notes and luminous materials—creates openness and upward movement.

Their dialogue generates the harmony guiding the entire structure.Gothic spaces offer a visual and spiritual model. Columns ascend, stained glass modulates light, stone holds centuries of prayer.

I translate this architecture into aromatic matter: verticality, translucence, layers that recall a luminous nave.As Meister Eckhart affirms, “spiritual light flows through what opens.”

A perfume must therefore open, elevate, orient.Through this process the olfactory structure becomes a place of contemplation—an invisible architecture shaped by molecules that speak the language of the sacred.

3. Niche perfumery has expanded quickly in recent years. From your perspective, how can one preserve authenticity and craftsmanship while adapting to a broader global audience?

Authenticity and craftsmanship flourish through fidelity to vision.The global world invites expansion, yet this expansion retains its power when it rises from a solid root.

Artistic perfumery can enter new markets while remaining loyal to its vocation, its identity, the quality of its raw materials, and the depth of its narrative.Craftsmanship thrives in slowness, study, and attentive care.

An authentic fragrance speaks through its integrity—a truth that audiences recognize immediately.Artistic perfumery reflects precisely this: a profound lightness that guides, while global audiences seek sincere emotion.

Authenticity becomes a bridge, a dialogue between personal memory and universal vision.

4. Your atelier LAVS — L’Atelier Vesti Sacre began as a sacred-vestment workshop, but today it stands as a symbol of aesthetic and spiritual reflection that transcends liturgy. How do you see the role of LAVS now — as a place of creation, as a philosophy, or as a personal sanctuary where all your disciplines merge?

LAVS represents a spiritual organism.It is a space of creation, certainly, yet also a thought, an interior environment, a home for all my disciplines.

Born as a workshop for sacred vestments, it carried a ritual vocation; through the years that vocation expanded until it embraced my entire life: first music, then perfumery, photography, writing, and broad artistic research.

I see LAVS as a philosophy uniting aesthetics and spirituality.Each project grows from a research that explores matter and memory.

Sacred vestments still occupy the center, yet around them an entire universe has unfolded—one that speaks of identity, community, and interior life shaped by art and beauty.

LAVS is also a personal sanctuary: a place that gathers my path and holds it together.As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “everything serious is born from interiority.”

LAVS lives precisely in this space, where creation and contemplation walk together.

5. The architecture of cathedrals and the sound of the organ seem to shape much of your artistic language. When you compose — whether with fabric, scent, or sound — what comes first for you: the form, the emotion, or the silence?

Everything begins with silence.It is the moment where all things await, where interiority opens itself to a higher direction.

From that silence arises emotion—an energy that guides the hand, the mind, the nose.Form then emerges as a natural response, an architecture shaped around a deeper source.

Cathedrals teach this sequence: a greatness born from an initial void, then filled with light, and finally articulated in structure.The organ follows the same law: air awaiting, vibration rising, harmony expanding.

My creative process reflects this order: silence awakens emotion, emotion becomes form.

6. You’ve said that art, for you, is a spiritual act rather than a product. How does this conviction influence the way you curate exhibitions, design sacred garments, or perform music within holy spaces?

Art lives as a spiritual act because it rises from an interior calling.This conviction orients all my choices: an exhibition becomes an initiatory path, a sacred vestment becomes a presence that accompanies a community, a musical performance becomes an offering.

When I curate an exhibition, I seek an architecture that guides the visitor toward transformation.An artwork must speak with sincerity, open a space of light, and fulfill its essential purpose: to share and to converse with those who enter its orbit.

In sacred garments, spirituality directs the material: fabrics, metals, and embroidery collaborate to reveal a higher truth.Music in holy spaces expands even further. It becomes an invocation, a bridge.

My art grows from this orientation and unfolds through this responsibility.

7. Today’s creative-luxury world is moving toward sustainability, digital presence, and experiential storytelling. As an artist, designer, and perfumer, what do you see as the greatest opportunity and the greatest risk for luxury brands in the decade ahead?

The greatest opportunity lies in the possibility of creating authentic experiences that unite matter, ethics, and vision.Sustainability invites responsibility when it rises above ideological rhetoric.

Digital presence allows beauty to be shared with unprecedented amplitude.Experiential storytelling offers a new language through which the soul of a project can speak.

Luxury can regain a higher mission: restoring quality, care, and depth.The greatest risk rests in the loss of identity.

Digital acceleration may weaken substance, the pursuit of approval may soften vision, global expansion may dilute truth.The future of luxury depends on a delicate balance: closeness without confusion, amplitude without dispersion, presence without the sacrifice of origins.

In this equilibrium I see the promise of a renewed creative radiance.

My sincere thanks to Filippo Sorcinelli for this thoughtful and generous conversation. His reflections offer more than insight into a creative process—they open a space for deeper consideration of art, silence, and meaning in our time. It is a privilege to engage with a voice that continues to remind us that true creation begins within, and that beauty, when approached with integrity, still has the power to elevate and transform.