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104<br />
“FOLLOWING THE SEASONS<br />
TOO MUCH CAN MAKE yOU<br />
SEEM TOO UNIFORM<br />
AND CLICHéD”.<br />
IN WINTER, luCiAno<br />
BARBERA LOVES WEARING<br />
HIS FLANNEL TROUSERS,<br />
CASHMERE TIES IN SOBER<br />
COLOURS AND HIS WHITE<br />
LINEN JACKET WITHOUT<br />
OVERLOOKING HIS GILET.<br />
American and Japanese department stores. Just like<br />
a great sailor, Barbera has always been able to grasp<br />
intuitively which new and long-term sea routes to<br />
sail in advance, forecasting structural changes in<br />
markets and styles, fashions and trends. He has the<br />
shrewdness of the initiated in his eyes and senses<br />
and foresees the great tragedies ahead of time. This<br />
is what happened in 1986 when, on returning from<br />
a long journey in Asia, he said to his father and<br />
brother: “Either we change everything and return to<br />
our supreme art focusing on excellence and sophistication<br />
or we risk total annihilation. We will never be<br />
able to compete with them. They have very low<br />
costs. They crowd into the basements in millions to<br />
produce, day and night. They have the machinery<br />
and the raw materials. But luckily they don’t have<br />
what we have. Thousands of years of elegance”. His<br />
was a very long vision and it changed the course of<br />
Italian and world textile industry making it more sophisticated<br />
and meticulous, moving it towards top<br />
quality and excellence. And many followed in his<br />
wake. Always alert Barbera, just like the great Italians?<br />
“Always, particularly today, when you can be<br />
washed away by the smallest stream. There are millions<br />
of people who are just waiting for the chance<br />
to dress Italian sophistication and style, to furnish<br />
their houses with our creativity and design and we<br />
lose our know how, our history as manufacturers of<br />
excellence if we chase profit alone. If we don’t return<br />
to the supreme quality and sophistication that are at<br />
the heart of our history we risk ruining everything.<br />
Our governing and industrial elite must keep this in<br />
HIS WOOLS ARE TREATED<br />
LIKE CHAMPAGNE<br />
IN HIS PIANEzzE CELLARS.<br />
THEy ARE KEPT THERE EIGHT<br />
MONTHS IN CONSTANT<br />
HUMIDITy BECAUSE<br />
THEy HAVE TO REGENERATE<br />
THERE BEFORE WEAVING.<br />
105
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