Antonio Berardi launches Peroni luggage
The Italian designer teams up with beer brand
A bottle of Peroni beer would usually cost you a couple of quid; a frock by the fashion designer Antonio Berardi more like a couple of hundred.
But the two have collaborated to launch an altogether different product line: Valigia Peroni by Antonio Berardi. This month they are unveiling the first product in the line, a limited edition weekend case. It follows on from previous one-off collaborations between Peroni and the London-born Italian designer who wanted to work on projects that “showcased old-fashioned Italian craftsmanship”.
And at £700, this piece of carry-on luggage surely has to be utterly different to anything else. Heck, at that price, you practically want it to pack itself.
“But it is unlike any other case,” Berardi insists, when we met to look at a design prototype. “It’s made of highest quality Italian leather in the hand-rolled traditional technique. The inside, which is lined with malt-coloured suede, has been divided into sections for shirts, shoes, underwear, socks and toiletries. But when you’re returning from a trip, I really don’t like the way that dirty laundry is mixed in with clean clothes so we have a separate section for that.”
The inspiration for the model is part old-school Italian glamour (“I was thinking of the way that Ava Gardner and Gina Lollobrigida used to travel,” says Berardi) and part modern male sensibilities. “I’m a Captain Cautious when it comes to packing – taking far more than I end up using. So I needed a case that almost did the thinking for me.”
The Berardi limited edition weekend bag is available exclusively from www.yoox.com this month
