Florence is a colourful city. Not only in the vibrancy of its primary colours but also in the subtlety of its shades. Tess Matozza, the blogger behind A Glamorous Melting Pot and a fashion and communications student at IED, took to the streets and piazzas of Florence to craft a mobile photography project based on textiles. Armed with colour swatches of yarns, Tess compares the hues of walls, doors and shutters to those used in the fashion manufacturing industry. And… it’s a match!
Click through the photo gallery below to check out her observations.
1 / All’Antico Vinaio – Florence is brown colour. Somewhere between light brown and gold there’s a shade called schiacciata, Tuscany’s much loved bread. Here, at All’Antico Vinaio, we feel a sort of crusty love.
2 / Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale – Brown blends into a warm peach and dyes the walls of this majestic building. Inside you can breathe the smell of the old paper, touch the leather book covers, feel the wooden desks and the centuries-old atmosphere. And maybe even the mud from the 1966 flood.
3 / Uffizi – Grey is the colour of the Uffizi but inside a regal rainbow surrounds people in every room and corridor because art lives in the power of colours.
4 / Mercato del Porcellino – Ever sniffed leather? There’s a place in Florence where you can get lost in the perfume of bags. Leather is brown, yes, but its best shade is orange.
5 / Palazzo Coveri – Florence belongs to fashion and everything in the city revolves around la moda.
6 / Grey yellow building – Florence is an elegant lady who wears elegant dresses. She likes grey but has a Renaissance soul adorned with decoration. Here, you can never walk with your head down.
7 / Orange building – Orange is the colour of energy, the same energy Florence emanates when tourists move faster around the streets.
8 / Yellow building – How many shades divide brown from yellow? Ask Florence’s facades for the answer.
9 / Bike and building – Nothing is more beautiful than riding a green bike through alleys lined with windows and their flowers.
10 / Basilica of Santo Spirito – A cream church pairs better with a blue sky.
11 / Grey building – It’s always the same grey story. Approach Florence looking up to discover the beautifully ornate buildings around the city.
12 / Ponte Vecchio – The artist’s brown folder is brimming with sketches because Florence has always been the cradle of art since the Renaissance. More importantly, it is still alive and vibrant today.
13 / Vasari Corridor – Gold like royalty. Gold like the streets that lead to goldsmiths’ workshops.
14 / Lungarno – Yellow, orange, pink, brown and yellow again form the soothing colour combination of the city’s facades and the power of ancient colours bursts forth beside the Arno.
15 / Santa Maria Novella – The churches of Florence are where the green marble of Prato meets the white marble of Carrara.
16 / The Duomo – Everyone around the world recognizes the white stone and the green grey decorations of Santa Maria del Fiore.
