Sicilian Suede – the Leopard’s Legacy Sketched in Scent

Olentium’s Sicilian Suede, Extrait de Parfum, draws inspiration from the novel ‘The Leopard’ (Il Gattopardo) by Sicilian aristocrat Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and evokes sensual scenes from Visconti’s 1963 film of the story.  (And perhaps too the new Netflix version which looks equally lavish; on screens on 5th March, 2025 – see below for the trailer.)

The novel, set in late 19th century Sicily, recounts the fate of the fictitious noble family of Salina, one of the island’s old aristocratic dynasties. The era is one of changing fortunes in Sicily as Garibaldi enters the stage ushering in the Risorgimento and the aristocracy’s slow, painful demise.

Visconti’s film portrays this period vividly. The scenes speak of faded grandeur, soul searching, of resignation to fate and yet also a striving, if a futile one, to hold on to the past through routines and rituals. The film depicts the stark contrasts that are Sicily and which are still evident on the island today.

There is darkness and heaviness of spirit in the family home – the decaying and partially closed-up palace of Donnafugata (the real palace of that name is pictured below and is quite a shuttered experience full of dark rooms with odd Sicilian mementos here and there). But, there is the gaiety and opulence of exuberant balls in grand Palermo palaces and the lightness of being of the young lovers; the next generation in a new Sicily that was promised with the death of the ancien regime – the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The Leopard’s legacy

The chiaroscuro – the sharp contrasts from light to dark – in both the scenery and psyche of the protagonists is where I found my inspiration. I studied the novel while reading Italian at university and it has had a hold on me since; as has Visconti’s film that fleshed out the key characters with Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina and the Claudia Cardinale as the seductive Angelica Sedara, the local mayor’s daughter who represents the new rising middle class and who married into the family.

It is fitting that The Leopard – a novel so deeply entwined with the idea of time’s passage, of grandeur slipping into memory—was itself nearly lost to obscurity. Rejected by two major publishers Mondadori and Einaudi in Lampedusa’s life, the manuscript only saw the light of day after his death thanks to Feltrinelli. Yet, it would go on to become one of Italy’s most celebrated literary works, which is why it was on my university curriculum.

Its success mirrored the very themes it explored: the endurance of history, the power of nostalgia, and the quiet dignity of things left behind. Sicilian Suede echoes this spirit, embodying both the weight of tradition and the whisper of change, which in Sicily’s case, never quite took hold.

Perfuming the Twilight of an Era

In the notes of Sicilian Suede, I not only conjure a specific excerpt in the novel – the carriage ride of the patriarch prince after an illicit liaison with his mistress in Palermo – but also a later moment in time — an imagined literary gathering in Palermo in 1958 to discuss and celebrate The Leopard on its publication.

This is the passage in verbatim that was my first reference point.

Now the road was crossing orange groves in flower, and the nuptial scent of the blossoms absorbed the rest as a full moon does a landscape; the smell of sweating horses, the smell of the leather from the carriage upholstery, the smell of the Prince and the smell of Jesuit, were all cancelled out by that Islamic perfume evoking houris and fleshly joys beyond the grave.

The Leopard, Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

I took fragrance cues from Prince Fabrizio’s evening carriage ride, blending this evocative reference with the imagined literary soiree’. Rising tobacco and anticipation, glasses of aperos clinking softly as conversation swirls in elegant rooms where the scent of polished parquet and well-worn leather sofas lingers.

Beyond the open French doors, the evening breeze carries in the delicate sweetness of blooming jasmine and citrus, mingling with the perfumes of well-dressed women – hints of iris, powdery heliotrope, and the soft warmth of cashmere-wrapped shoulders.

Full Perfume Notes: cumin, mandarin, sweet orange, olibanum, osmanthus, ylang ylang, jasmine, frangipani, heliotropin, licorice, suede, orris, hay, styrax, leather, vanilla, labdanum.

The Leopard – updated in film as in fragrance

Like the novel itself, Sicilian Suede moves between the grand yet fading world of the Salina family and the new Sicily rising in its place; a scent that feels both timeless and deeply evocative. It is a fragrance of memory and transformation, of whispered histories and the quiet elegance of things that endure.

And so, it feels only right to publish this post on the day of The Leopard’s return – this time on screen, as Netflix unveils its own retelling of Lampedusa’s masterpiece. A new chapter in the novel’s long and fascinating afterlife.

Sicilian Suede, Extrait de Parfum

– available in 15ml and 50ml and in our Discovery Set. See our online store, and also our stockists.  We ship internationally.

Images: The Leopard, 1963 movie poster. Attribution: Fair Use.
Olentium©: Donnafugata Palace, Ragusa, Sicily (middle)
Netflix: trailer – The Leopard, on Netflix from March 5th, 2025.

BBC article, 05.04.25 – How Lampedusa’s novel skewered the super-rich: it tells us something of how the elites seek to retain their power.