HERNO THE MAGIC WORLD OF RAIN COATS FROM FLORENCE TO ROME

If you want to find a rain coat, a duvet, a jacket that are masterminds your place is Herno. The boutique in Rome is in via Borgognona 4 f and 4 g, one of my favourite street for shopping. Herno has a big birthday, 70 years of history. The owner Claudio Marenzi made a speech in Florence before the sitted dinner with press an buyers. It was preceded by a fantastic installation in the Leopolda Station. "In 1948 my father transformed the rainy climate of the lake and the humidity of the river into an opportunity when he started producing raincoats. Production organised itself so that in 1980's and 90's it was almost easiier to decide to work for third parties, for french maisons. Since 2005 my strategy has relied of the awareness of being able to develop our brand in an  evolutionary, practical and tailoring way we handle each stage of the process".

A perfect combination of praticality, tradition  and innovation. The factory is in Lesa near Novara, on the Maggiore Lake. It is the quintessence of doing it the Italian way, intuition that uncovers an opportunity in the waters of a lake, river and rain. It is the revelation of how a raincoat has travelled down through decades.

Renewed, deconstructed, strenghtened, modified in technological, ecological, luxurious and urban variations enhanced in its fabrics and advanced in performance. In Florence, in the Leopolda station, the Water Echoes was an interactive installation designed by Studio Azzurro (we were sitted next to them at the dinner) that summarises and evokes the element best suited to the brand: obviously water.  It was an artistic immersion of images and sounds. Of course the installation called L.I.B.R.A.R.Y was like a spectacular box containing old and new models of jackets and raincoats but also objects, memories, old pictures, videos, furnishing and photos.  A brand that I admire and want to make my clients discover more and more.

FROM FLORENCE TO ROME SHOPPING IN EMILIO PUCCI BOUTIQUE

If you want to discover Emilio Pucci 's world in Rome, you can shop in the lovely boutique of the Spanish steps. The store is located in piazza di Spagna 87. It is always a glamourous experience reinforced by the amazing set they made in Florence in Palazzo Pucci last week during the Pitti fair. The exhibition was called "Bonaveri, a Fan of Pucci". Bonaveri is the most famous factory of mannequins worldwide. They make mannequins for almost all the fashion brands.

in Florence, Palazzo Pucci hosted the visual experience where Emilio Pucci's heritage and future is told through Bonaveri's artisanal excellence and creative dephts. The exhibit subverted the role of the mannequin through a series of installations. The courtyard became an installation with over-dimensional mannequins wrapped in most iconic print, called Vivara. On the second floor the mannequins were a vision of Pucci's colour library was displayed on a spectrum of custom vevelt Bonaveri mannequins.

The colour story continues with an interpretation of Pucci's number one quest-the freedom of movement-told in a humorous installation featuring two fans blowing into meters of archived black and white Pucci Prints. They showed it also on Rai on the news. The report was made by Franco Fatone.

Surrounded by historic frescoes, the ground floor of the Palazzo, which previously housed the Emilio Pucci embroidery ateliers reveals the inner workings of Bonaveri's artisanal excellence. The journey ends with a visit to Emilio Pucci's studio wher some personal memorabilia were displayed, leading to the fitting room where a group of baby mannequins were watching over the archived pieces.

The project is the result of a conversation between Emma Davidge, creative direction of Chameleon Visual and Laudomia Pucci ( daughter of Emilio) who wanted to create an ironica and humorous encounteer between the two Maisons by projecting their rich history and savoir fair through a contemporary and innovative vision. Andrea Bonaveri said " It was an opportunity to turn the light on the talent and capital of artisanal skills that nurture the Made in Italy. The artistic craftmanship that dwells in companies like Pucci and Bonaveri expresses itself in the ability of men and women to build beauty".

On the top of that there was also on display the book published by Skira on Bonaveri that I contributed to write with Gianluca Bauzano few years ago. 

A TASTE OF BRUNELLO

One of the reason to go to Florence for the Pitti Fair is to understand where the men fashion world is going. Especially the italian one. One of the most interesting entrepreneur who comes there, twice a year, is Brunello Cucinelli. His stand is one of the most visited and he always organized a dinner with press and buyers. This time we were at the Botanical Gardens on a beautiful Liberty greenhouse.

The new collection is the Spring-Summer 2019. We will have it in the stores in about a year but it is worth to have a glance of it before. That's why we are here. Brunello was inspired by the Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby or a movie like Charriots of Fire.  At that time formal elegance, for the first time, was influenced from the sports, especially tennis and golf. The sartorial contours of the suits make an intelligent use of fabrics and are blended with sports details. Shirts with colorful patterns and superligh sweatshirts. Safari Jackets are made of linen or nylon, college bombers are in cotton poplin. We also love college bombers in cotton poplin to express this versatile style. The palette is colonial: white, panama, sand, caramel, cubano and tobacco. This time Brunello added lavender, basil, raspberry and radicchio.

We are also waiting for the men's shoes: from the classic derbies to the newest sneakers.  In the mean time you can always go shopping for men and women in the two roman stores: one is in via del Babuino 150/D and the other one in Via Borgognona 33.