Valentino Garavani and Mario Valentino have made peace. Yet, they have not definitively defused the casus belli. The two brands have agreed to settle the legal battle that started in the United States in 2019. But the terms of use of the “Valentino” trademark on leather goods, agreed upon in 1979, still represent a minefield. […]
Fruit boxes that become leather cases. Shopping bags that turn into durable leather shopping bags. Everyday objects reinterpreted into (fun) luxury items. This is the secret of Domestique, the Parisian brand that uses leather to decontextualise things and catapult them into the world of fashion accessories. We met founder Bastien Beny at the latest edition...
Celebrating 80 years by building the future. How? With a collection aiming to a new target audience. The Soldini shoe factory in Capolona (Arezzo), is preparing to reach an important milestone. Founded in 1945 by Gustavo Soldini, the company will turn 80 in 2025, and has decided to warm up the engines of the upcoming...
It’s called Conscious Leather Design Academy. Conscious because it recalls sustainability, to be interpreted as green awareness (360 degrees). Leather is self-explanatory. Design defines the creative perimeter of the initiative. Academy contextualizes its educational purpose. Main characters of the project: Officina Vanvitelli of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli and Lineapelle. Together, they have created […]
When designing a special performance product, leather is chosen. This is demonstrated by projects at Lexus and Abarth where upholstery is called upon to withstand extreme conditions, to say the least. The special performance: moisture-resistant For its 75th birthday, Abarth unveiled a 230-horsepower car-boat (in photo on the right). An ultra-limited edition product called Abarth […]
At Paris Fashion Week (18-23 June), a radical mutation of the male wardrobe was on stage. Starting with Kim Jones, who re-proposes for Dior the brand’s codes, contaminating them with workwear. Genius and madness instead for Jonathan Anderson, who brings to the catwalk through Loewe a game of grandeur inspired by his childhood. At Hermès,...
A desolate road, mountains of hides left rotting in the sun along with garbage, an old man standing there perhaps hoping to pull in some change. It looks like a horror movie, but these are the images coming from the Turkish province of Gaziantep. Images to be shown to those who dream of a tanning-free […]
US-based Garrett Leather acquired Canadian company CTL Leather. Garrett Leather (Buffalo, USA) founded in 1988 by Cameron Brown, sells fine leathers to furnish private jets, automobiles, hotels. Among its customers is even the White House. On the other hand CTL Leather was founded in 1993 in Toronto, Canada. The latter designs and develops special projects […]
Rohde, the German shoe manufacturer with an Italian soul, is thinking positive. After risking bankruptcy in 2017, it came under the ownership of the Italian Condor Trade group of Verolanuova (Brescia), best known for the brand Inblu. The shoe factory retained its Schwalmstadt location, and today has a turnover of around EUR 24 million, producing...
From Muhammad Ali to Michelangelo Antonioni, from Maria Schneider to Wim Wenders. These are just few of the excellent testimonials that have accompanied the success of the brand Piero Guidi over the years, protagonists of the “Angels of our time” campaign. Names that give an idea of the historicity and importance of the brand, born...
It is an Annual Meeting that seeks to look to the future, but must reckon – necessarily – with a complex present, that of UNIC – Italian Tanneries held today in Milan. The reference is to the budget for the year 2023, but the instance was also used to discuss the first months of this...
It is a real Manifesto of Intent, and it concerns Business for People and Society. It is being drafted by UN Global Compact Network Italy, a local network of the UN Global Compact (one ofthe world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative). Among its signatories, as of today, is the Veneto tanning group Dani. Dani signs the […]
On a year-on-year basis, the decrease in turnover in the first quarter of 2024 is 6.38%. But compared to the November-January 2023 period, there is a 5% growth. This is why Pasubio Leather, Vicenza-based tanning group with a particular focus on automotive leather, is pleased with “the resilience of the group despite the reduction of […]
Super-luxury fashion is not faltering. Haute couture has (or is itself) an antivirus to the crisis and seems unconcerned about what is happening around it. “Globally, haute couture is doing well”, says Sidney Toledano, president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, on the eve of Paris Couture Week, scheduled for 24-27 June. The...
“2023 was a boom year. At the beginning of 2024, we thought we would drop a bit, but for now we are keeping up the pace, in fact we have grown”. These statements make headlines on their own, all the more so when they are made by a Tuscan leather goods manufacturer, Boldrini Selleria, a...
Gucci‘s second men’s collection designed by Sabato De Sarno was shown at the Milan Triennale on Monday, 17 June 2024. A location chosen to pay homage to the Italian creative tradition, that unites the museum and the brand. All this, creating a conversion dynamic between craftsmanship, innovation and aesthetic refinement. De Sarno’s new proof (which...
Louis Vuitton opened Paris Fashion Week (18-23 June) on Tuesday, with a mammoth show. In the House of UNESCO, the pacifist anthem of Pharrell Williams, creative director of the French brand’s men’s lines, was on stage (in the photo, from the fashion show video that you can watch here). Le Monde Est à Vous: this […]
In Milan, the Men fashion show (on the calendar from 14 to 18 June) straddled past and future, with one constant: the freedom to dress without rules. It’s showtime at Moschino. Creative director Adrian Appiolaza brings to the catwalk a collection that reinterprets the brand’s iconic pieces in an ironic – without nostalgia – key....
Estimates for the full year are still as they were in November: +4% (+6% in the optimistic scenario) for EUR 385 billion in turnover. But, meanwhile, 2024 has started badly. According to the Altagamma-Bain Market Monitor update, sales of personal goods fell by 1-3% at current rates in the first quarter. While there is no...
Consumers are more careful to the product: they are no longer satisfied with “the media narrative proposed by a brand”. This was stated to Corriere della Sera by Giuseppe Santoni, executive chairman of the company Santoni, founded by his father Andrea in 1975. For the Marche-based footwear entrepreneur, 2024 is not and will not be...
