There is a particular kind of confidence required to name a £225 fragrance after the Italian-American slang word for a fake. Born to Stand Out did it anyway, and the joke has aged into one of the more knowing in-jokes in niche perfumery. Fugazzi, in the mouth of a Brooklyn wiseguy, means counterfeit, phoney, a knock-off passed off as the real thing. In the hands of Jun Lim it means something darker and far more expensive.
The house behind the porcelain
Born to Stand Out, usually shortened to BTSO, is the Seoul-based house founded by Jun Lim in 2022. The flacons are sculpted white porcelain, weighty and almost ceremonial. The house positions itself in that narrow lane occupied by Le Labo and By Kilian, niche with attitude, priced for the kind of buyer who already owns a Byredo and is hunting for the next conversation piece.
The Fugazzi story
Fugazzi launched as part of the founding BTSO line, and the irony of the name is the whole point. Here is a small Korean house, charging Creed money, making a perfume named after the word for a counterfeit. The composition itself, however, is anything but a joke.
Composition
The opening is saffron and a wash of spice, hot rather than sweet, the sort of top note that makes a room turn its head before you have finished saying hello. Underneath that, oud arrives quickly. It is a smooth, almost suede-textured oud, not the medicinal barnyard accord of the old Montale school but something closer to Tom Ford Oud Wood with the volume turned up. Tobacco threads through the heart, dry and slightly sweet, and the leather sits low in the dry-down, more polished briefcase than biker jacket. Amber rounds the base into something warm and faintly resinous.
Why it endures
Fugazzi has become one of the most-requested dupe targets in the masculine niche market, which is itself part of the joke. A fragrance named after a fake has become the thing everyone wants to fake.
The UK problem
Fugazzi retails at around £225 for 50ml in the UK, when you can find it, which is not often. BTSO has limited UK stockists.
The Aromara alternative
This is the part where the joke folds in on itself. We have built a dupe of a perfume named after a dupe. Fugaze by Aromara is our reading of the Fugazzi accord, made in the UK at 35% Extrait concentration. It opens on the same hot saffron, runs through smooth oud and dry tobacco, and lands on the same polished leather and amber base. £40 for 50ml, 7+ hours, 60-day refund.
The verdict
Fugazzi is a genuinely accomplished fragrance with a name that refuses to take itself seriously. If you want the original porcelain flacon and £225 is not the point, buy it. If you want the smell on your wrist for a fraction of the price, the joke is already waiting for you.
