Faraone Mennella and Scognamiglio say that they soon plan to expand Fiori globally, using the same distributors Farmen employs to send its seeds worldwide. (Renato has plantations everywhere—from Thailand to Easter Island.) But blooms are only a small part of the bigger picture. For fall, Faraone Mennella Fiori will also debut candles—based on those same flowers, natch—at big-name retailers like Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Lane Crawford, while a collection of perfumes, home fragrances and potpourri is also in the pipeline. “The idea is to bring this incredible hidden treasure of an industry to the surface,” says Scognamiglio. “To focus on the art that is behind designing the flowers.”
In many ways, it’s also a homecoming for the two friends, who grew up mere blocks away from each other in Torre del Greco. “It’s sentimental for me, because of my dad,” says Faraone Mennella. “I’m sure he wanted me to go into this instead of jewelry.” Scognamiglio, meanwhile, shares a childhood memory about Faraone Mennella Sr., aka the “crazy scientist.” “I’d go to Roberto’s for lunch,” he recalls. “[Renato] would be making a spaghetti and refer to the sauce as F1, as in ‘Roberto, get me some F1.’ In the beginning, I never understood. But F1 was the purest gene of the San Marzano tomato. They called it by the chromosome. Who does that?”
