BORBONESE, a historic Made in Italy brand, has a considerable heritage: born in Turin in 1910 as a brand of bags, jewellery and accessories, in a short time it ranks among the leaders of Italian fashion with classy and elegant products. @borbonese / www.borbonese.com
Today more than ever research and development is essential to propose innovative and sustainable solutions. With this spirit, the brand founded OFFICINA BORBONESE, a project in collaboration with the main international fashion schools, incubators of young talents and supporters of innovative creativity.
Elena Marshall
Credit Parsons Paris
“OFFICINA BORBONESE aims to form a community of young creatives who share the values of the brand.” – says Alessandro Pescara, CEO of Borbonese – “We would like Officina Borbonese to be a laboratory of ideas as well as product research. A sort of Desk. Design Thinking: a widespread space of creativity, with new interpretations of our most famous products through unexplored forms of communication, an interchange that combines production with imagination, ideas with experimentation. Parsons Paris seemed to us from the very beginning the ideal partner: the one-year project was carried out through constant dialogue with students from creation to final prototypes, despite the difficulties imposed by the health emergency.”
Officina Borbonese has created an exclusive creativity and management project with Parsons Paris, the European Branch of Parsons School of Design in New York City. Started in February 2020, the project involved the students of Parsons Paris and Parsons New York in Fashion Design and Brand Management in a creative path that had as its main inspiration the tradition of tapestries in Sardinian craftsmanship.
For the project, the Fashion Design students created a Special Edition Bag while the Strategic Design and Management students finalized the marketing and communication strategy for launching the product on a new market, through the analysis of the brand positioning.
Credits Parsons Paris
The distinctive features of Savoy Faire, the name of the project, were sustainability, craftsmanship, the choice of controlled supply chain materials, the enhancement of local cultures and attention to female-run businesses. To this end, Wilda Scanu, head of the Su Trobasciu artisan cooperative in Mogoro, made up of women only, explained to the students in detail the secrets of tapestry processing and the use of traditional materials.
The Savoy Faire project culminated with three finalist prototypes: Lara Gerlach with the Rinasci bag, Alice Le Ster with the Buttonera bag and Caterina Masoni with Elena Marshall with the La Cinta shoulder bag.
A special jury made up of the Borbonese team and external experts between Paris and Milan declared Lara Gerlach the winner of this edition. www.instagram.com/laragerlachdesigns
