Buongiorno from Tuscany!
This pocket of Italy is often referred to as ‘the golden land’, thanks to how the sun warms a landscape
dotted with ochre towns, olive groves and cypress trees. In summer as the heat rises, the scent of citrus and
jasmine fuses with coffee, leather and sun-baked soil.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Italy throughout my design career and Tuscany never fails to move me. The region’s capital, Florence, is shrouded by hills and at its heart the vast Duomo Cathedral rises up, its iconic domes and belltower topped by terracotta.
Florence is also the birthplace of the Renaissance and home to the Uffizi Gallery and my favourite painting, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, which depicts the goddess in an otherworldly scene: flowing hair, drifting through sea breeze and falling flowers.
Then, in the Galleria dell’
Academia stands Michelangelo’s famous David
sculpture. To bear witness to how these pieces – created some five centuries ago – continue to resonate and
captivate is kind of breath-taking. It’s a similar feeling in Carrara, known as The City of Marble, where I often go on behalf of clients, for this is where Michelangelo had his quarry. That I can use exactly the same materials as the most celebrated and revered artists of all time to create beautiful things hundreds of years later feels surreal.
One of my favourite spots is San Gimignano, a 13th-century hill town near Siena famous for its skyline of five towers. It’s especially dramatic at night, when soft lights from the narrow streets glow deep and gold.
I’ve wanted to create fabrics that captured the essence of the headiness of Tuscany in summer for a long time. And now I am launching four collections that speak to the warm earthy tones found in both rural idylls and the bustle of the piazzas, where espressos and Schiacciata bread steam, Vespas buzz – and everything is balmy and sensuous.
With colours inspired by the warm landscape, the Onda is a soft sturdy cotton suitable for curtains, blinds and upholstery. The Pecora, a boucle in rich cream and taupe tones, nods to farmhouse stone, quarry marble and the dust tracks that weave through the olive groves. Brezza and Terra are lightweight linens in deep golden and earthy hues. Bramasole – meaning yearn for the sun – is a soft cotton blend suited for curtains. It takes it’s name from a dreamy house with its burnt butter exterior.
I wanted to fold and weave as much warmth and earthy tones into these fabrics as I possibly could and I am just so excited to introduce my interpretation of Tuscan charm to you.
