It’s 9am on a Monday morning and I’ve already been waiting in Montreal’s Trudeau Airport since the early hours. I slowly sip my espresso and contemplate the view in front of me. My jumbo jet back to Paris is getting de-iced. I can’t help but chuckle. Outside, the view looks like a white desert sand storm. The temperature announces minus 20 degrees Celsius. Typical Canadian December weather, I sigh. In a few minutes I will be on a call with Ermanno Scervino. The designer is in Florence, where the weather is positively balmy, prepping for Wednesday’s Fall 2013 women’s and men’s show at the Palazzo Vecchio. Like most others, I only have beautiful memories of the city, which is home to numerous designers’ ateliers—Pucci, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Patrizia Pepe are all from Florence.
The phone rings and our call is connected. Speaking to me in Italian, the assured, deeply masculine voice of Ermanno Scervino—a man whose eponymous made in Italy brand has gone from strength to strength, immediately transports me away from the Canadian Arctic flurries and back to the red clay tile rooftops of Firenze.
Your upcoming Fall 2013 womenswear and menswear collection is titled A Tribute to “Florence”. Without giving too much away, what do you have in store for us as the headliner fashion show of Florence Fashion Week?
Expect … hmmm… what can I say… In my show, I will express that Florence is not just a city of museums, but also a city of fashion. I want to make a tribute to my city so I want two things to come across: me, Ermanno Scervino, and Florence.
How do you describe your city?
It is a beautiful city with an enormous know-how in the industry I work in. My company is not in Milan or Paris because this land, this region, has an excellence, a know-how, for “Made in Italy”. A great deal of the production of the clothes and accessories is made right here, in Florence. When I first got involved in this industry, people were going to China to have their work produced. But I identified a special local know-how, with respect to the production of my designs, and this has now lasted many years. At the beginning, it was a difficult choice, but in the end, it was the right one.
You design for men, women and children, and you also design accessories. Do you consider yourself a foremost designer of menswear or womenswear?
I have to be sincere… I am more involved with women’s clothing, which is more complex vis à vis men’s clothing. I love menswear, but only when the clothes do not create victims—victims of fashion, victims of the clothes.Masculine fashion must be without pretense—and this is not born out of a fear of fashion, but simply because they can easily look like fashion victims.
What was the most special moment for you from 2012?
Ahh, probably the opening of the Ermanno Scervino boutique in Dubai. It is a beautiful place and I had a lot of fun! (laughing) It was almost a vacation. The store is a lot like the store in London, on Sloane Street. There, we have a lot of Arab women coming into the shop, so it was a natural transition to open a store in Dubai. You know, I really like emerging markets. I am encouraged to do even more with Arab countries.
Speaking of the Middle East, and Dubai, what is particular about your relationship with the women of the Gulf? What do they want from Ermanno Scervino?
I think that they want me to continue what I have been doing. Continue to walk the road that I have paved. Arabs—and even the Russians, they have helped me a great deal. The new luxury is in artisanal work. The production of my designs is a quasi-couture. It is very exclusive and Arab women need and love these kinds of products.
What do you hope for in 2013?
I have to think about this a moment, this is the first time I have been asked this! I hope to continue what I started in 2012. I am quite satisfied.
Today, Style.com Arabia will exclusively live stream the Ermanno Scervino Fall 2013 menswear and womenswear collection. Tune in at 11pm UAE / 10pm KSA.
