Sicily. Inspired by the shadows of a past rediscovered, light on sunny afternoons, but as the sun slowly sets, all is veiled in an increasingly impalpable blue. We have looked into the pages of Sicilian history to find in its perfumes, flavours, and whispered words, the timeless emotions that only the past can recreate, combining the intense and nostalgic essence of the culture, myth and magic of a place. We have admired our fascinating surroundings, walking the twists and turns of old stone stairways and along narrow dusty roads, through vineyards and fields of unripe wheat, trying to fix in our memories the sounds that come from the natural products of a healthy earth. We have “come home” with the images of far-off times still clear and bright in our minds, with the hope that they will allow us to rediscover and to relive our cultural past. Fluidity, transparency, lightness, charm. These four words reflect the soul of our SS20 collection. Inspired by the magic of Sicily, a land of volcanoes and stories from history, we have developed a series of creations in which mythology and legend, landscape and everyday stories intertwine. This island, where the fields meet the starry skies and the horizon meets the sea in the distance. Our prints are influenced by the island’s wonderful colourful ceramics, “revisited” by us, by cast iron balconies that look out onto archways and carved decorations, by decorative marble intarsia, found in stately homes and cathedrals. Finally, we arrive at the fascinating myth of Phyllis and Demophon, in which we celebrate the flowering of the almond blossom which takes place every spring, as if by magic. For this collection, we are honoured to have taken part in a project called “Waste Couture”, which focuses on re-evaluating waste in all sectors of the fashion industry, and on making production cycles completely eco-sustainable. For the collection, silhouettes are relaxed, restructured, wraparound, comfortable, flowing. We have used the impalpability and luminosity of silks, the richness of brocaded fabrics woven, as they once were, on the loom (and which are part of a completely eco-sustainable line), the noblest and coolest of cottons with buttons in enamelled terracotta or in real mother of pearl. These precious fabrics give life to a summer collection with an allure that transports us somewhere between the dreamlike and the evanescent, towards the essence of the Sicilian soul. Fluid blazers like blouses, belted and not, wide trousers and midi dresses which skim the body like nightgowns, enhancing the beauty of refined prints inspired by Sicily’s history, alternating with textured three-dimensional pieces and duster jackets in shantung silk and twill, in highly sophisticated colours. In total contrast, bustiers constructed in watery nuances and washed-look fabric, or in an explosion of colours in various cotton fabrics and printed silk or brocades, accented with the thinnest of belts tied up like laces, a true emblem of Sicilian femininity from the past, and revisited in these new proportions.