When most founders speak of inspiration, they begin with a flower, or a memory, or an emotion. Thomas De Monaco begins with light. His origin lies behind a camera, not a lab. For more than twenty years, he worked in Paris and Zürich as a photographer and creative director for the fashion elite, Dior, Hermès, Saint Laurent, Armani. Yet in those years, he began to feel the boundary between seeing and sensing grow thin.
Thomas saw that perfumes could hold shadow, refract a gesture, carry a texture in the air just as a photograph might on film. He grew restless with the constraints of visual briefs in luxury fashion. He wanted perfume to be not decoration, but extension, not accessory, but presence. So he offered his own vision, first privately, as a gift to friends, and then, in 2022, he founded his eponymous house: Thomas De Monaco Parfums. All fragrances are conceived, compounded, and bottled in Zürich, housed in a historic Gustave Eiffel factory, marrying exacting craft with singular personality.
His debut, Raw Gold, began as an intimate gesture and became a cult object. Lipstick, leather, davana, and orris meet in a single, magnetic composition. From Sol Salgado’s golden radiance to Fuego Futuro’s earthy ritual, each scent resists cliché. The new Artist Collection marks a bold new chapter for the house. Conceived as an evolving creative platform, it invites collaboration and experimentation beyond traditional perfume boundaries. Its first theme, Flowers for Future, reimagines florals not as symbols of nostalgia, but as visions of what lies ahead. Three fragrances inaugurate this series, each interpreting the idea of tomorrow through scent. Future chapters within the Artist Collection may move beyond flowers entirely, exploring new olfactive territories as the concept unfolds.
In our conversation, Thomas speaks like a painter of presence. He describes tension, resonance, and portals, not notes. He challenges the fast-fragrance age with patience, the repetitive niche world with risk, and the collector’s gaze with mystery. This is fragrance as emotional architecture.
Elevated Classics Interview with Thomas De Monaco
The Light Behind Scent
HA:
You began your career shaping visuals for Dior, Saint Laurent, and Armani. When did you first sense that scent could speak the same visual language, that perfume could hold the light and emotion you once captured through photography?
TDM:
It actually started the other way around. I was often struck by how intellectual and disconnected many brand visuals were. Every time I was introduced to a perfume, I would instantly imagine a mood, a certain light, a texture, a presence. But the official brief always went in another direction. As someone driven by emotion and artistry, that was difficult. So I began offering my own vision. Glass, distortion, refraction became ways to express the complexity of scent. That tension evolved into a free experiment, a subjective immersion into feeling. Refined over time, but always raw at heart.
Freedom and Texture
HA:
You’ve often mentioned Helmut Lang’s original perfumes as a turning point. What about that line, its restraint, its texture, its anonymity, continues to echo in your work today?
TDM:
Helmut Lang brought art and edge into fashion. His perfumes were the same. They were a challenge but never complicated. They were free, uncompromised, untouched by marketing logic. That freedom is what I work with. I encourage those around me to leave constraint behind. I love texture, and I do not believe in anonymity. Texture means character; it forces you to engage. With the new Artist Collection, we are moving far beyond what is known, exploring what will become possible tomorrow. New molecules, new processes, a new kind of beauty.
Risk and Resonance
HA:
Raw Gold began as a personal gift, never meant for sale. What happened between that moment of intimacy and its transformation into a cult fragrance? Did the act of sharing it change how you create?
TDM:
It was a delicate moment. I had already challenged people with my abstract photography and exposed many of my thoughts. Of course, I was afraid, afraid that my ideas would be misunderstood or rejected. But I had learned to face that. When I launched Raw Gold, I was prepared for friction, and that is exactly what happened. People either loved it or hated it. No middle ground. The controversy created energy. That tension gave the extrait its life. It proved that risk is essential to making something that matters.
Craft as Human Practice
HA:
You produce and bottle every perfume in Zürich. In an industry driven by outsourcing, how do you maintain that independence while scaling production, and where do you refuse to compromise?
TDM:
The volumes have grown, and space is our main challenge. We are constantly rethinking how to scale without losing our essence. Some tasks, such as boxing, are now done by local workshops for people with cognitive disabilities, people with a different perspective on life. That gives our process a human dimension we value deeply. At the same time, I am eliminating purely mechanical steps that have no connection to craft. It opens room for what matters: creation. We rebuilt the photo studio and are planning spaces for hands-on experimentation. Our idea of craft continues to evolve, and that is important.
Precision and Emotion
HA:
You and perfumer Maurus Bachmann share an intense, disciplined rhythm. When you disagree, is it usually over formula or emotion, and how do you find resolution without diluting either?
TDM:
Working with Maurus was an immersion into a complex universe of thought. He showed me precision; I believe I opened the door to emotion for him. We had moments of perfect resonance and others of frustration when that resonance disappeared. With the Gold Collection, I followed a clear vision and ultimately pushed through the DNA. It was my concept, and I claimed it. The new perfumers understand this, they know what it means to work with me.
The Future of Niche
HA:
The Artist Collection introduces young perfumers exploring “flowers for future.” How do you weigh risk against tradition when mentoring a new generation, and what shifts do you see in how they approach niche?
TDM:
Unlike the Gold Collection, where I hold the reins, the Artist Collection is built on trust. I give the brief and then limit myself to three interventions. The perfumers work in small batches. If a creation resonates, we produce more. The risk is theirs, and that matters. We are re-establishing what niche originally meant, not exclusivity or nostalgia, but freedom. A shared obsession with poetry and what it might become. Flowers for Future returns to the source but does not replicate. It projects forward. Enough repetition, enough copying. We move on.
Presence and Transience
HA:
Your perfumes are known for persistence and radiance. How do you achieve that sense of presence, and does longevity ever conflict with your aesthetic of quiet elegance?
TDM:
I never cared about concentration or terminology. We simply made them. I pushed the formulas, and today we average around twenty-five percent in development. Finished products vary slightly. There is something we call the sweet spot in the Gold Collection, which comes from a few secrets. Yet what I believed five years ago no longer applies. The Artist Collection plays with transience.
Radiance changes. I wear three different perfumes throughout the day, a soft spray of Neo Eden in the morning, Jade Amour at noon, and Fleur Danger in the evening. I enjoy the evolution and the shifting images each scent paints.
Beauty as Material
HA:
Is there a material you consider your personal signature, something that feels like your fingerprint in scent form?
TDM:
Can I call beauty a material? Are positive emotions my fingerprint? I prefer not to focus on raw materials. You do not talk about stitching when you wear a coat. I feel perfume physically. I show on my body where the scent lives, I like it around the shoulders. I often wear scarves. If I compared it to music, rhythm would be the foundation of my perfumes; the melody comes later.
Abstraction and Story
HA:
You often balance narrative and abstraction. When do you choose to tell the story directly, and when do you let mystery speak for itself?
TDM:
As a photographer, I delivered an image, something fixed, a result offering both solution and emotion. With perfume, I create a world behind the visible. I suggest thoughts, fragments of poetry, loose associations. The story is finished by the person who wears it. The image unfolds in their own memory. Mystery lives there. When I see someone smile or pause, I know it worked.
Craftsmanship and Continuity
HA:
You’ve said, “Craftsmanship is the promise; emotion is the signature.” How do you protect that promise in a market obsessed with novelty and constant launches?
TDM:
Today, most people buy a perfume once. The era of the signature scent is on hold. The fixation on newness has its place. Technology encourages speed and waste. A fast-fragrance culture has emerged. We do not follow it. With the Artist Collection, we define our own rhythm. These scents belong to the moment they were created. If someone copies us, they are already behind. That is our advantage and the essence of true craftsmanship.
Patience and Permanence
HA:
Many independent perfumers cite your house as proof that deeply personal creation can still reach a global audience. What would you tell them about building a brand that stays true yet grows beyond its origin?
TDM:
That is a beautiful compliment, and it touches me deeply. But the truth is that most new brands have little chance in today’s market. Distributors are full; shelves are crowded. The key is patience. If you want to build something lasting, start small and keep going. That has always been my way. We stay quiet, grow organically, produce lean. As a perfumer, you are not a marketing genius, you are a creator. Own that.
The Nostalgia of Tomorrow
HA:
Every artist chases a feeling they can’t quite capture. What scent, real or imagined, still escapes you, the one you hope to find before you stop creating?
TDM:
I might repeat myself, but I believe in beauty. I love the word joy. I love walking through nature, dancing in cities, watching people embrace and hoping they are well. I want to create a scent rooted in the Portuguese word saudade, but not one that longs for the past. Something that softens the present and stirs a hunger for what has not yet come. I am searching for a portal to the nostalgia for tomorrow.
Since I began digging deep into the fragrance industry, I have grown jaded by how easily the word niche is used. Everyone wants to claim authenticity, but few understand what it truly requires: ownership, risk, and patience. The market is flooded with derivative launches and hollow storytelling. Yet a house like Thomas De Monaco reminds me why I still care.
This is perfumery at its highest level, a true meeting of science and art. Every composition feels deliberate, alive, and human. It is about meaning. For those of us who chronicle this world, Thomas De Monaco is proof that perfume can still be uncompromisingly beautiful, unapologetically personal, and worth believing in.
Elevated Classics Classification
Primary Category: Artistic Niche Perfume House
Secondary Tags: Independent, Vertically Integrated, Private Lab Production, Photographer-Led, Craftsmanship-Centric
Founded: 2022, Zürich
Production: Conceived, compounded, and bottled in-house in a historic Gustave Eiffel factory
Creative Direction: Thomas De Monaco
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