Renato Balestra
Roman couture translated into scent.
Renato Balestra is an Italian fashion and fragrance house rooted in Roman haute couture. Born in Trieste in 1924, Renato Balestra abandoned engineering studies after early fashion sketches caught the attention of Italy's Fashion Center, completed an apprenticeship in Milan, and founded his Rome house in 1959. His first show at Palazzo Pitti in 1963 established a style grounded in simplicity, precision, and spontaneity, earning an international following that stretched from American department stores to the courts of empresses and first ladies. Fragrances arrived in 1978 with Blu Balestra, named for the signature cobalt shade that marked his collections, and the house went on to collaborate with perfumers of the calibre of Alberto Morillas and Bertrand Duchaufour. After Balestra's death in 2022 at ninety-eight, the house passed to his daughters Fabiana and Federica and granddaughter Sofia Bertolli Balestra, who continue the tradition of measured Italian elegance that defines the brand.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
