Inside Stefano Ricci’s Opulent Egyptian Fashion Show

They say travel broadens the head. That plainly contains trend designers. A person-off reveals in significantly-flung, exotic spots have become some thing of a fixture on the big-model vogue calendar over the earlier couple of decades. It received less than way properly before the pandemic but it has redoubled in the previous 12 months, with brands vying with each other to appear up with at any time far more unforgettable backdrops in opposition to which to existing their new collections. Past spring, Gucci confirmed men’s and women’s with each other in Puglia. Just couple of times later, Kim Jones’s Dior Males confirmed in Venice Seashore to assorted push and influencers.

Just a 7 days in the past, Florentine men’s manufacturer Stefano Ricci went 1 up on both and staged a few evenings of cocktails, dinners, and excursions in Luxor, Egypt. Quite a few hundred of Ricci’s most devoted and spendiest customers—along with a handful of global press—were ushered from one particular mind-blowing instant to the upcoming from the backdrop of 3,000-calendar year-outdated temples, the Nile, and of study course the well-known tombs throughout it in the Valley of the Kings and, nearby, the lesser-recognized Valley of the Queens. In the track record were being 400 crew such as 4 tailors, 45 designs, and 200 chefs (flown in from Florence, Italy, naturalmente).

A scene from the show.

Logistics aside, there was practically nothing random or merely triumphant about choosing Luxor (in antiquity, Thebes) as a spot for the Florentine brand’s 50th anniversary celebrations. As a Florentine brand, Ricci draws on an now-rich regional Italian culture dating back again to the Renaissance and further than. But for him, Ancient Egypt signifies one thing otherworldly in the nearly-religious pursuit of magnificence and luxurious, something he has been at pains to foster in the men’s collections at Stefano Ricci given that he started out in 1972 with a assortment of silk ties. Ancient Egypt’s background and archaeology has held a unique spot in his heart considering the fact that the inception of his brand, so significantly so that Ricci released a book termed just “Luxor of Egypt” nearly 20 decades ago, to rejoice the prosperous artistic tradition of the historical Egyptians. The guide was signed in gold ink with a foreword by then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and produced with the support of Egypt’s possess archeological superstar Zahi Hawass. Ricci experienced the restricted edition operate printed for gifting to friends and shoppers, while you can decide on a person up occasionally for around $500.

Daytimes on the Nile ended up used Indiana Jonesing about in the more well known tombs, such as Tutankhamun’s and a bevy of Rameses. A substantial position was a breakfast lecture from Zahi Hawass himself. Hawass, we realized, is sizzling on the path of 1 of the most sought-right after and, as however, unknown tombs, that of Queen Nefertiti. Evening meal in the Temple of Luxor, a huge complicated marooned in the bustling contemporary town, seemed like the superior level of festivities, till the finale. In a vogue exhibit spanning an hour, 90 appears to be like in 10 groups of types sashayed down the steep entrance ramp of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, crafted into the superior cliffs of Deir el-Bahri all over 1470 BCE, a thousand years in advance of the Parthenon in Athens. The modern temple was reconstructed from of its ruins in the 1990s.

The show’s cinematic environment at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.

The assortment ran from opulent brocaded night wear—its cloths woven at an historic 18th century silk weaver in the coronary heart of Florence, the Antico Setificio Fiorentino, which was saved and is now owned and operated by the Ricci family—through patrician tailoring to what can only be described as mega sportswear with bells on, reflecting extra informal tastes in dresses, even amongst Ricci’s most affluent buyers. That a great deal of this diverges sharply from the prevailing streetwear dominated appears to be on other runways is vital.

A closer seem at the garments themselves.

And that is particularly how Ricci’s consumers want it. Service—i.e., giving the prospects what they want, alternatively than leading them by the nose—is the Ricci family’s exceptional marketing proposition. Right after faltering in critical marketplaces like Russia and China through the pandemic, income are, by all accounts, bouncing back not minimum in the United states of america, exactly where the model is about to unveil its hottest flagship on Madison Avenue. This becoming a proudly Italian brand name, you could not seriously expect to get absent with out a very little opera, which was furnished live, mid-display, by friend of the brand name, tenor Andrea Bocelli. Specified the locale, there was a spot of Aida, normally, but also the stirring Nessun Dorma from Turandot, which echoed powerfully off the cliffs earlier mentioned to add to the grandeur.