Marissa Zappas is a perfumer and poet based in New York City. Her approach to  perfumery merges her background in anthropology with her passion for avant garde  perfumes of the early twentieth century. She is greatly inspired by the perfumes of  Schiaparelli, Guerlain and Lucien Lelong. She has her own collection of fragrances, but is known for her collaborations with New York  City artists and writers. Marissa collaborated with Liara Roux on a perfume called  WH*RE to accompany her book, Whore of New York also with a Vice astrologer  Annabel Gat on Annabel's Birthday Cake, and formerly with writers Rachel Rabbit White (poet) and Gideon Jacobs (writer). Her ethereal and deeply nostalgic perfumes blend  the fantasy and the real with the gothic and the modern.  

 

Marissa thinks about scent in unexpected ways, informed by her MA degree in  anthropology, which focuses on the history of perfume. After completing her MA,  Marissa decided to take her lifelong passion to the next level and dive fully into the art of  perfumery, doing the perfumery course at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) before  taking a job working as an apprentice to Master Perfumer, Olivier Gillotin, at Givaudan.  She trained in perfumery for two years under his mentorship until 2017, when she left to  start freelancing, all the while continuing her training. She has been working as a  perfumer since 2019, in-between New York and Paris. 

 

For Marissa, the Creative Dialogue is the most important part of creation. It means she  must listen beyond words; to feelings, colors, textures and ideas. Marissa works with  artists in more visual mediums to interpret scent where others might not. She is  passionate about the language of flowers and symbolism, often incorporating this  symbology into her work. The Creative Dialogue is a symbiotic inspiration, based on  respect and creativity. This conversation often pushes her to do her most creative work,  realizing new means of creation and becoming a better artist.