Camilla Dei - Nobile di Montepulciano e Rosso di Montepulciano

Gianna Neri- Brunello di Montalcino e Rosso di Montalcino.

Incredible women producing some of the best wines in the world right here in Tuscany. I share with them the love for this land, for our children (all three of us have one daugher!) and for our work. It takes a big amount of energy, strength and pride to work as hard as we do and at the same time being in a business world that is rougher and rougher,  faster and faster.

They are both great friends and we try to keep in touch in between business trips and see each other to enjoy life.

This weekend it was a pleasure to meet Camilla and speak about fashion, wine, our baby girls, the future and our next awsome party!

The products selected for the exhibition had to be in various materials each representing a category such as glass, leather, metals, fabrics and many more. The main characteristics for the selection were beauty in design and a 100 percent handcraft made in Italy. So design with an “author” and handcraft with the oldest Italian traditions in the Tuscan area. Amongst the judges in this selection were Prof. Duccio Balestracci – a world famous art historian.

I was honored to be part of this and the reaction of the public to the bag was amazing. The exhibition was fully booked for every single day and visited by people from all over the world.

At a Romana Correale event, guests as Giacomo Neri, producer of the best Brunello in the world (on wine spectator he was number one not long ago) and Vincenzo Abbruzzese, Francesca says “we Are all friends. Our kids play together.

We have great respect for this region and we are very concerned for the future of this country. We know that Tuscany is the leading region for many products. While we have our events and parties we speak about the important decisions, the government, the world, about everything. But we also meet people that work for different fashion companies, brands and designers. Tuscany is the land were companies like Prada, Ferragamo, Gucci and Romana Correale were born. Francesca says ” here in Tuscany we don’t only make “italian bags”. The leather districts here are famous worldwide and we need to protect our small producers. Even if they are very expensive they are amazing. We have to manage to resolve all the bureaucratic problems and the government has to support us and be flexible in a region where we have been producing for years amongst the most wanted and luxurious products in stores today.”

Francesca ends by saying “we have the honor of living in the region were Leonardo Da Vinci was born and where art, culture, science and poetry was “everyday bread”. We should have respect for our past, look up to it and work for our future to be as brilliant. To do so we need our government and society to work together for the best to come. Collaboration, honesty and intelligence are the tools for great ideas to grow.”

In Photos Francesca Romana Correale with Giacomo Neri, Vincenzo Abbruzzese and wifes. Giulio and Giulia Brini manager Prada. Letizia Fusi manager at Gucci. Sister and daughter Paola and Iris. And many others…

This bag is easy to carry thanks to the long shoulder strap. It is incredibly soft. In the inside it´s made of jeans and there are many many pockets. I put my iPad and my iPhone and other important things in the big pocket. There are two more pockets for pens, pencils, sunglasses, baby stuff etc.

I love this bag because i can wear it all day and also take it to a party right after work. It´s used and liked by both men and women. It´s unisex and cool. It´s elegant and practical. At the end I am happy I decided to add it to the Le Forme collection. It´s the most loved bag of all of them!

Why is Stockholm a source of inspiration in my design?  Stockholm has a strong character when it comes to design and fashion. People here do their own thing. They dress as they feel. I don’t see young people being slaves of designers or victims of the fashion system. Each person has their own style. Then it becomes interesting even for us designers and eye catching.

Stockholm also inspires me when it comes to music and nature. The respect the Stockholmers have for nature is unbelievable for us in Italy. Tthe nature rules in the city, not the buildings.

I bought an apartment in one of the areas I love the most; Rörstrandsgatan. It is not a coincidence that many italians live here.  We love beautiful things, beautiful people, design, good food and amazing coffee. This area has amongst the best restaurants in the city and absolutely the best coffee place.   I love the number of museums, libraries and cafés and restaurants were they play jazz and live music. Stockholm is a lively and happy city were sometimes weather becomes hostile. But must of the time its mesmerizingly beautiufl.

While rebuilding the apartment  I thought about light and space. The need of light even during the cold winters and the need of open spaces… the need of walking around areas without having to open doors. I like that. it´s a work space, a social place and at same time private.  A small home/studio were I can stay during my days in Stockholm.

Who is Francesca Romana Correale?

I was born in to a very traditional, down-to-earth family from which I learned to appreciate beauty when defined by quality. Such beauty could be found in both a person’s personality and in objects. When I was just four, I emigrated to Venezuela, at a moment in which the country was going through a dynamic reality of growth and wellbeing, and the spirit of the whole entity was building a new world. This ambience was the breeding ground for the ideas carried out by great architects, artists and writers… among which was the Italian Gio Ponti.

Cultural traits from the entire world were generously interwoven creating a unique dynamic. This vitality has lived on inside me.

How was this revolutionary “handle concept” born?

Venezuela has taught me to search relentlessly for beauty in the true nature of things and people. To go beyond the limits of what is possible and to refuse any sort of compromise. I have always sought, I still seek, infinite beauty, be it in people, art, fashion or in poetry and music. What the “new world” teaches you is that you can create from scratch. Therefore, beauty, in my imagery, is not a fixed line and is not limited by the legacy of an oppressive, ever present, past. The “new world” has taught me to believe in and to look for small, true revolutions. Everything seems, and is, possible. And this is how the seed for these handles has grown: slowly, over a long time.

How do you explain your creativity?

My creativity is born from observation and from questioning the rules. It is born from the stimuli that subconsciously I have received from my contact with art, music, people and nature. For instance, I speak of “questioning the rules” because normally, when designing a fashion product, you must follow certain rules.

These rules are rarely broken because there are marketing and production requirements that prevent it. I have asked myself whether it was really necessary, in order to define a product, to repeat a brand a thousand times over, thus suffocating it and making it ugly. Besides, bags have become vulgar due to the indiscriminate use of accessories, which just underlines what those bags are not. The result is an object that can be beautiful but is intentionally short-lived. Its interest and wearability will last only for one season. Instead, I have intended to do the opposite: to give aesthetical prominence to pure lines and basic elements, devoid of the concept of time. My purpose is to create objects that are immediately recognisable and referable to the brand at first sight. Instantly. As it is actually happening. Girls walk past a lady with one of my bags and they go “ahhh, that’s a Correale bag”. This is the ideal and the backbone of the RC brand.

Why are you so bound to territory? Why are you so strongly passionate about this fight for local production, with such high costs and long production times?

My brand is strongly bound to territory. The human side of this brand has deep roots in the Siena region, in its culture and landscape. I’d even dare say, in the food of the Siena region. Choosing ostrich leather was no accident. These animals were, until not so long ago, even bred in the Tuscany region. This is a worldly sense of beauty. It is fully linked to handcrafts and attached to the quality of local products.

This is, by definition, a territorial brand.

However this Brand is also, undoubtedly, very, very personal, isn’t it?

Yes, indeed. RC is infused with my personality, and yet it is also an ideology. This ideology is shown in the durability of its products which, due both to their quality and their design, would like to travel through time and belong to any season or generation. RC is, by definition, the antithesis of fashion.

Why have you chosen to be in the social media?

This is another very personal choice. I have a frantic need to communicate, for which my dearest and most distant friends can testify. The brand faces the world and communicates with it in the same way I communicate with my loved ones: in an open, honest, constant manner.

The only situation in which I “do not communicate or refuse communication” is when I am in deep distress or sorrow. I rarely want or seek to open up to the others at these times.

According to you, what is the perfect object?

The perfect object, for me, has no time or sex, but it does have a soul!

Just like angels. I think I have achieved such perfection only in the Skull computer bag in ostrich leather. It is bought and desired by men and women alike. Besides, it is eternal in its quality and practicality. Whoever has one, defends it with their very life!

Why this extreme need to go personally to supervise the leather and the accessories used to make your bags?

Great chefs are distinguished from other ones because they want to go to the market to buy the best produce for their recipes. Making a bag is not so different. I wanted to create a true product, something that existed even if deprived of its brand. Something that could be recognised by its quality and style, not by its logo.

This is the hardest path, because it’s all uphill.

These days many bags are no more than sacks covered all over in logos. These women go around practically selling and showing no more than “hot air”. I wonder how long this can last? Especially in the luxury market. I think it won’t last long. The woman who buys my bags does not need or want to show off luxury. When you think that these days there are men who request that the badges identifying model and engine are removed from their cars, this should give something to think about to those selling luxury products. And this happens because those men want to be identified with the lines and the quality of the brand they chose, without it being too present on the product itself. Try a test with one of my bags and a canvas bag from a big brand. The latter will be recognisable from a distance, mostly by the logo printed all over. While my bag will be recognisable from the same distance by its style and by the beauty of the leather in the sunshine. This is what creating a product means to me… Creating a beautiful bag.

Besides, innovation makes it even more difficult to produce an imitation that will only satisfy those who want to hide behind a logo. Copying my bags and their engineering, born from the hands of the most skilled Italian craftsmen, is surely not very profitable in the counterfeit market, which would much rather have products that are easy to introduce into the black market.

Why should a woman choose RC?

A woman should choose RC only if she feels the need to escape clichés and wants to be at the avant garde with style and quality, knowing that her personality has been defined by herself and by her behaviour. But never as a substitute for her personality nor for her potential. These are something you are born with, not something you become. This woman is a dynamic woman, in perpetual movement, able to manage work and family without losing her femininity.

Mag, Siena
Via Dei Termini 49
Tel +39 (0) 577 41043
agonn@libero.it

Mag