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subscribe to style file blog via RSSA Veryta Good Thing
September 24, 2009 10:40 am
Clothes produced by a nonprofit foundation run by two Italians to benefit schools in India? The sound of it may not pique much interest. That is, until you realize that we are talking about Stefano Pilati and one of his oldest friends, Filippo Binaghi, a fifth-generation fabric manufacturer whose family company Lorma Srl is capable, he says, of coming up with 20 to 30 new fabrics a day. Seeking a way to support education in India, Pilati and Binaghi hit on the idea of hiring illustrator Tanya Ling to design a capsule collection, 10 percent of whose proceeds will go to www.schoolforchildren.org. Ling’s painterly touch—sashes and frills and the nutty feather toe caps on lemon pointy pumps—is realized in her collection, with details that imitate the stroke of her brush. The quirky highlights in the assortment of cute, simple pieces are inspired, she said, by a mixture of school uniforms and Indian saris. The debut was shown late last week with some charm and the donated cooperation of the likes of casting director Russell Marsh and producer Sam Gainsbury at Claridge’s. But the charity angle isn’t merely a marketing tool. According to Binaghi, it’s a sound business strategy that will eventually yield more than just a straightforward donation to the cause. He’s soon headed to Paris for a few days, where he’ll be showing the collection to stores at Le Meurice—and presumably hitting the YSL show.
tags: Filippo Binaghi, Stefano Pilati, Tanya Ling, Veryta
