Fragrance of a Passion
MILLE CENTUM IS THE BRAINCHILD OF MARCO CICCATERI AND HIS WIFE SONJA CICCATERI, BORN OUT OF A PASSION FOR MONTECRISTO
Mille Centum was born out of an idea, a desire for something never ending, defying the trends and boundaries of time, a project of heart for myself for which I had the support of my wife.
THE BACKGROUND: FINDING YOUR INNER COUNT
As most projects and companies Mille Centum has its origin in a passion. In this case my passion for Montecristo, both the Habano and the legendary novel Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas. When incorporating my Roman ancestry with Montecristo and my own name we got the name Mille Centum, which in Latin means 1,100, which in Roman letters spells MC: Marco Ciccateri, Montecristo, Mille Centum.
My own story with perfumes began with my mother who was very interested in perfumes as a young woman. This gave me the same interest for perfumes, creating wonderful memories of my childhood, my mother and her scents. When I later moved to Stockholm, with my first salary I bought Chanel No 5, which I gave to her when she came to visit me for the first time. Leading this project forward as spouses, parents and business partners our ideas were from the very beginning crystal clear. We knew exactly what kind of feelings we wanted our products to provoke into the by-passer, to the observer and finally to its bearer.
We wanted to transmit the feeling of uniqueness, the power of will to improve and to find inner nobility – the inner Count.
THE MISSION: QUALITY IS NOT NEGOTIABLE
We started out with nothing, only the logo and the need to respect the high standard of the brand Montecristo. After more than two years we had finished products. Today it is with big pride we see our bottles standing on shelves of fine establishments or on photos of social medias.
Our vision is to create a perfect symbiosis with all the things of a higher meaning, whatever they may be for the single person. And to test the boundaries, to always challenge them and never let them limit us.
Our goal is that Mille Centum will have a range of fragrances, both with Montecristo Deleggend and our own brand and to be present in an exclusive but numerous quantities of renowned selling points of prestige.
THE RESULT: OUR CREATIONS
Montecristo is one of the world's most renowned premium brands, bringing fine Cuban craftsmanship and undisputable quality to the world for over eight decades. The challenge was to incorporate the classic and luxurious sensation of the name Montecristo into the fragrance Deleggend.
When creating the fragrances it was very important to us to make something defying current trends, our fragrances are always actual and for all times.
Initially, the idea was to start with a single perfume, the Montecristo Deleggend Signature Line (brown). We wanted it to be woody with spices and I was extremely focused on the combination of vetiver and tonka.
The user's vision of our first fragrance was a man of 35 years and older, a passenger, a bon vivant. He's been through a lot and has remained modest, valuing life's small, precious moments. A man who is not focused on material wealth, as many are today.
When we were able to say that we were satisfied with the result of our first fragrance, we still felt that we weren't done which was actually rounded off by the compositions and visions for the other two fragrances Blanc and Noir.
These came very easy because we had the right concept already in mind. When this happened, we realized that we, knowingly or subconsciously, were inspired by the novel The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas, rather than the "lifestyle premium cigar smoker" such as I so enjoyably am.
And so we wanted to develop the alter egos of Montecristo Deleggend. Not to create three fragrances strongly separated from each other, appealing to completely different persons, but to salute the versatility of man and create one Montecristo Deleggend, with three different faces suitable for whatever mood or situation life may bring you.