The garden occupies a unique space within the fashion industry, ubiquitous as an aesthetic choice – oftentimes informing the location of a show or presentation as much as it serves as design inspiration for a new collection – and particularly prevalent as an arena for extra-curricular pursuits, perhaps most notably celebrated by Christian Dior and Dries Van Noten. For the most part, Bradley Seymour and Fabrizio Taliani, co-founders of ‘elevated workwear for garden lovers’ label Rovi Lucca, are party to the former. ‘The truth,’ shares Seymour, unpacking their relationship with horticulture, ‘is that we came to gardening really late. We first got our hands dirty in the garden in lockdown, as a sort of therapy.’
Spending the bulk of the pandemic at Taliani’s grandmother’s house in a valley above Lucca, the pair quickly became engrossed in the grounds surrounding them. ‘I love to work in the garden, but what I especially love is the elegance of the gardens in the villas of Lucca,’ suggests Taliani, who grew up nearby. ‘There is something specific in Tuscany, a mix of different styles. For example, you can see something from France, something from England.’ Occupied by the French between 1799 and 1814, the principality of Lucca was awarded to Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister, in 1805 (in 1809 she would become Grand Duchess of Tuscany). ‘So there’s this tension,’ adds Seymour, ‘between a French influence with this earthy Tuscan realness.’
Rovi Lucca: ‘elevated workwear for garden lovers’
While Covid-19 enforced a hard pause on their respective disciplines – Taliani in menswear design and Seymour in creative direction – they credit these fields with shaping what has subsequently played out with Rovi Lucca. ‘We both came out of big careers,’ asserts Seymour, referencing his work with Marie Claire and Esquire, and Taliani’s tenures at Trussardi, Malo and Zegna. ‘Fabrizio really knows his stuff, while I've worked in editorial almost my entire career, wherein I saw every collection, every trend, sharpening my editor's eye and translating it in a visual sense, and that's what I do for Rovi also. So we're both coming from a fashion background, but from different directions.
‘We’re kind of creating this vocabulary with fabric, and with Fabrizio’s knowledge and background, we're able to do it with pleasure,’ he continues. Based out of Milan, a point of pride for the label is its relationships with producers across Italy, and the human experience this imprints on the final garments. ‘We work with this producer who cuts everything by hand,’ says Seymour, ‘and maybe it's something imperceivable, but the clothes have a different soul to them. It’s unique and special, and rare outside of tailoring to have this approach.’ Moreover, a core starting point for Taliani was filaticcio, a fabric specific to Lucca that features heavily throughout its collections. ‘It’s super beautiful because it reminds you of the interior of a house in Tuscany,’ observes the designer, ‘this rustic fabric which originally was very heavy, used for interiors like cushions.’
On the Rovi Lucca Instagram page a rich collection of green references – paintings and photographs, loosely assembled together under the banner ‘meet me in the garden’ – foregrounds the pair's emphasis on research, but it’s a series of IRL gardens in Lucca that have played the most significant roles in their output so far: Tenuta di Valgiano, Orto Botanico Comunale de Lucca, and Palazzo Pfanner. ‘There's some beautiful alchemy between science and creativity,’ considers Seymour, relaying their meeting with a botanist from Lucca’s botanical gardens. ‘It’s interesting to see Lucca through another’s eyes,’ proposes his partner, ‘to understand another point of view, and I think it's interesting to be creating a sort of community [with Rovi Lucca].’
While the label engages with fashion conversations, and Seymour and Taliani acknowledge their perspective is informed by the industry, ultimately they see Rovi Lucca as a kind of love letter to something greater. ‘It’s a way to dream – we decided to make clothes for gardeners because this has got to be where everybody wants to be – but also a way to connect to nature, get your hands a little dirty,’ says Seymour. ‘The clothes are practical, but we find beauty in the simple things and place attention in that simplicity, at the same time sharing this love of Italian countryside. We don't pretend to make fashion, it's more about creating something dependable. These clothes don't have to scream.’
Rovi Lucca is available from the brand’s website.
