The Hotel Granduca in Houston made me feel at home. It has all photos of beautiful places in Italy, books, maps, sculptures, the shields, the history. You can really breathe Tuscany here. I don’t think there would have been a better place were to make this event. The bags express the same philosophy of the Granduca: Excellency, Made in Italy, history and art.

Walking in the Galleria in Houston i found an amazing shop with very interesting and unique designers. The name of the shop is Gregorys. I was incredibly happy when I discovered one of the coolest shoes ever by the designer Massimo Dogana. Not only for its joyfulness and quality of design but even for the great match it made with My bags. I Love to see that other designers like me want women to be strong and happy.

Look at this photo of one of his shoes. How perfect would it be together with my latest bag “Mela”?

Massimo, give me a call

This bag starts with choice of the material made with collaboration of incredible know-how by a well known Florentine “man of leathers”. The form and design wanted by style is given to the bag by the expert hands of a prototype artisan.

The leathers are all among the top luxury rated ones; crocodile, snake and ostridge.  We chose them one by one for our bags. Select them for perfection. The shopper is a big bag and needs a perfect animal to have an amazing frontal crocodile part. As you can see I have no cuts in it. It’s not small pieces of leather sown toghether. It is one and only one frontal and back. So this means the leather had to be perfect.  Once we select them we keep them in a controlled environment as to mantain their beautiful nature. Everything from choice of leather to first prototype is done exclusively by hand. The beautiful look these leathers have when put under sun light is due to this process and all the incredible care.

The heart handle shopper in crocodile is the must beautiful thing I’ve ever seen… It’s really the top of my collection Le Forme!

In English:

The creation of “Francesca Romana Correale” metallic badge took place starting from a plaster mould which was expressly commissioned to one of the chief sculptors collaborating with Johnson 1836. From this mould was obtained the special steel die employed in the production of the items requested. The process consisted in the traditional ‘coinage’, which permits the maximum of detail accuracy. Afterthen, the items underwent galvanic gilting and ‘patina’, and were finally enamelled.

Johnson 1836 enjoys 170 years of experience in artistic medal coinage, promotional objects and jewellery. Established in Milano since the first half of XIX century, its main care is always been the realizazion of specific and special demands of its prestigious customers, ranging from industry, banks and insurance companies, to fashion, culture, and to public, private and religious institutions.

In Italian:

La creazione dello stemma metallico “Francesca Romana Correale” è avvenuta partendo da un modello appositamente commissionato a uno dei principali scultori che collaborano con Johnson 1836. Da questo modello è stato ricavato lo stampo in acciaio speciale temperato che è servito per produrre i pezzi richiesti. Questi ultimi sono stati realizzati attraverso un procedimento di coniazione a freddo, che consente la massima precisione dei dettagli. Dopo la stampatura e la ritagliatura meccanica e dopo la saldatura degli elementi di fissaggio, i pezzi sono stati trattati galvanicamente in bagno d’oro e quindi patinati e brillantati. Infine, è stata effettuata la smaltatura in forno delle parti colorate.

Johnson 1836 ha più di 170 anni di esperienza nel campo della medaglistica d’arte e nelle più svariate applicazioni della lavorazione artigianale dei metalli, dalla promozione alla gioielleria. Da sempre a Milano, è orientata in particolare allo studio e alla realizzazione di specifiche esigenze di comunicazione e di immagine di una clientela assai diversificata e di prestigio, che va dall’industria al settore bancario ed assicurativo, al mondo della cultura e alle istituzioni pubbliche, private e religiose.