The Scent of Strategy: Clive Christian’s Chess-Inspired Moment at Milan Design Week

Every chess game begins with silence. The strategy. The stillness. The move you haven’t made yet. Quiet strategy builds inside your head, ready for your counterpart to make the first move. That is exactly the energy Clive Christian Perfume brought to Milan Design Week in collaboration with Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios.

In an immersive installation called Transformism, a life-size chessboard unfolds across the terrace of Museo Bagatti Valsecchi. Large silver pieces glide across the board, anchoring the colored squares just as one of Clive Christian’s scents sits on the skin – their crowns the direct echo of the brand’s iconic perfume bottle. It's a quiet nod to the brand's royal British heritage, and to something older than that: the idea that true luxury doesn't just look the part. It holds its position.

Chess strategy always deepens slowly. So does fragrance – layer by layer, note by note, until the full picture reveals itself. The collaboration understands this instinctively. As Harry Nuriev, Founder and Creative Director of Crosby Studios puts it, “This is Transformism. When something familiar shifts and takes on a new meaning. Chess and perfume work in a similar way. They unfold over time – through sequence, tension, and trace. It’s not about the game. It’s about presence.”

Clive Christian wants people to touch their brand, not just observe it. Adding another sensory element beyond smell creates a stronger lasting impression. “We have always believed that true luxury is not only seen, but felt – it is an atmosphere, a presence. This collaboration with Crosby Studios allows us to translate the essence of the brand beyond fragrance, into a spatial and emotional experience.” – Dino Pace, CEO of Nichebox.  

At the heart of the Clive Christian brand, fragrance is the ultimate form of self-expression.

That commitment doesn't start at Milan Design Week — it starts in the bottle. Each fragrance contains at least 20% perfume oil, well above industry standard, with anywhere between 120 and 300 ingredients working in concert to create something that stays.

It is the end of the chess game, the Queen corners. She holds her position.

Checkmate.

The board is set.

Open to the public at Museo Bagatti Valsecchi

April 21-26, 10am-6pm.