Exclusive Candles, Interior Design

At first glance, it is the house’s iconic Art Deco flacon. Clean lines. Perfect proportions. The kind of silhouette that has lived on bathroom shelves and dressing tables for over a century without ever asking for attention.

But Chapeau! is not content with familiarity.

You lift the lid and realize the object is playing with you.

The “hat” – yes, the name works on two levels, both literal and congratulatory – is itself a 330 gram candle in glazed yellow stoneware. Radiant. Glossy. Optimistic to the point of audacity. It feels like Italian sunlight compressed into ceramic.

Then comes the reveal.

The base is not a container. It is a second candle. 1600 grams. Four wicks. Monumental in comparison. Suddenly what looked decorative becomes structural.

It is a clever inversion of expectation. The lid is not an accessory. It is an equal.

Designed by Dorothée Meilichzon, Chapeau! feels like a study in contrast executed with restraint. Meilichzon has built a reputation for creating immersive spaces – bars, hotels, restaurants across Paris, London, New York, Venice – where every detail carries narrative weight. Here, she scales that thinking down to an object you can hold in two hands.

The tension is tactile.

The upper piece is glazed, smooth, almost lacquered in its vibrancy. The lower half begins life as what ceramists call a biscuit – raw white ceramic, unglazed, sanded by hand for up to thirty minutes to achieve its matte softness. The result is not rustic. It is sensual. The surface absorbs light rather than reflects it. It feels deliberate, considered, quietly luxurious.

Yellow against matte white. Gloss against grain. Precision against something almost organic.

And inside, the scent choice is equally strategic. The first edition pays homage to Luce di Colonia, the Maison’s emblematic fragrance. It is heritage without heaviness. A reminder that Acqua di Parma’s DNA has always been about light – about that specific Italian brightness that feels cultivated rather than flashy.

There is something undeniably confident about this release.

Acqua di Parma could have produced another limited-edition vessel, another seasonal variation, another safe iteration of an existing format. Instead, it chose to play with structure. To reimagine the object itself. To suggest that a candle can be a design piece first and a fragrance second.

And that is perhaps what makes Chapeau! compelling.

It is not trying to be cozy. It is not trying to be trendy. It sits somewhere between sculpture and ritual object. Light it, and the room changes. Leave it unlit, and it still commands presence.

At 285 euros for Chapeau la Piccola, it is not an impulse buy. Nor should it be. This is a piece for those who care about the choreography of a space. For those who understand that scent is part of interior architecture.

Acqua di Parma has always embodied a certain Italian refinement – rooted in the vision of Baron Carlo Magnani and the original Colonia. But Chapeau! signals something more playful, more contemporary. A willingness to surprise.

A candle that applauds you back.

Chapeau, indeed.