Wrapped in the city

Wrapped in the city

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Fri 05 Oct 2018 2:02 PM

 

Via dello Studio atelier Torre D’Arte is setting a new bar for “souvenir scarves.”

 

Since moving to its current home in the shadow of Santa Maria del Fiore, the colorful artisan boutique has maintained a collaboration with Florentine designer and artist Stefano Ramunno, with whom owners Rossella and Francesco produce an exclusive “Florence” collection of eye-catching scarves, foulards, shawls and fashion accessories. More recently, local artist Hilde began contributing her own creations to the collection; though distinct from Ramunno’s in technique and mood, her delicate designs are equally inspired by the Renaissance city—an enlarged detail of Santa Maria Novella’s rose window forms the base of one bestseller.

 

Stefano Ramunno at work

 

Florence reinvented

 

Beyond the Dominican basilica, Florence’s and Tuscany’s trademark emblems feature prominently in the collection—think umpteen takes on Brunelleschi’s dome, the Florentine lily, and Tuscan cypresses. But these reinvented, often playful renditions of familiar symbols are not the mass-market imagery you’d find stamped on accessories in an average market stall.

 

 

Paintings are instead reprinted on the finest Italian textiles, from silk to wool to cashmere, which Rossella and Francesco hand-select. Both Hilde’s and Ramunno’s creations contain a range of gender-neutral options, but much of Hilde’s watercolor work makes use of softer, traditionally feminine hues, while Ramunno’s pieces tend toward a sharp and geometric quality, the pronounced lines often reminiscent of stained glass or coloring books.

 

 

Customized quality

 

Aesthetic appeal and artisan quality coexist peacefully with practicality. The breezy, season-defying fabrics make most of the collection wearable year-round, as an outfit-brightener in gloomy winter or a backup layer on balmy summer evenings that segue into chilly nights. Choose the size that suits: options are available in a handkerchief cut—in the traditional dimensions of the ever-elegant fisciù—as well as carrè (a classic square foulard), sarong, scarf and shawl varieties. And for the stylish but scarf-averse male, the Florence collection has a range of spiffy ties and gloves, too.

 

 

Torre D’Arte, Via dello Studio 25r, Florence.

 

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