Last week we visited our favorite Italian brand, Barena Venezia, along with some of our dearest partners, Andreas Murkudis, Bungalow and Schwittenberg. During the 4-day-long trip, we had the opportunity to visit the family business' HQ in Mirano and take an exclusive preview of the Barena Tales capsule collection and its elegant silhouettes and soft materials. It's a homage to the earlier times and how people dressed up in sophisticated, chic, elegant and multi-functional pieces to spend glorious times in the Lido. P.S. We are showing Barena Venezia's newest collection in Paris, so make sure you book your appointment.“There is a cabane occupied by a lady that no one knows, although she is an habitué of the Lido and very rich”. - Vogue - September 28, 1929 - Barena Venezia
To enlighten our busy day at the Barena Atelier, we had an intimate dinner together and shared some traditional Italian dishes that we all love. It was a particular time for us in Venice, not only because of the hospitality of the Barena Family but also because the 59th Venice Biennale was still on, along with the 66th International Festival of Contemporary Music, in the Lido, Venice. The Lido and its lifestyle inspire the Barena Tales capsule collection and therefore, experiencing these events first-hand at Lido made the trip whole.
Barena Venezia, a small, family-owned company has significantly influenced the way men (and women) dress in and outside of Italy over the past twenty-seven years. Before “sprezzatura” and “soft tailoring” became go-to terms for fashion editors, Barena was showing men how to dress casually and with class utilizing sartorial fabrics for rather sporty, workwear garments. The inspiration for Barena traces back to the style of the rural inhabitants of Venice: in fact, Barena derives its name from the term “baro,” which in Italian translates to “emerged lands” — a reference to a key feature of the Venetian landscape where both hunting and fishing were practiced by a slow sailing on a “Sanpierotta”, the flat-bottom boat depicted on the brand's recognisable logo. “Nothing inspires us more than life by the sea and the lagoon” says Barena creative director Pigozzo. Since the brand was founded in 1993 it grew significantly season after season, extending to womenswear in 2010 when Francesca Zara – daughter of the founder Sandro Zara – became part of the family business and Barena Women's creative director. Meanwhile, Barena maintains the fabric-first ethos it was founded upon. Pigozzo and Francesca Zara build each collection from the ground up, starting by looking for interesting materials and then basing their designs off the fabrics they find, often using original early-20th century patterns from the now rich brand archive.
