I don’t know about you but I’ve never wanted a vacation like this year. Even just to take any means of transport and rediscover the thrill of travel, the thrill of the journey, even if it is short. Immobility is perhaps what has weighed on me the most in the last 12 months that we will not be able to forget. But now it is right and healthy to think about ourselves again, give ourselves a little break, rediscover, even if with caution, the beauty of sharing our emotions with others.

What thoughts do we take on vacation? A bit of anxiety remains even if the vaccination campaign worked and this certainly makes us more protected than last year when at the end of August we found ourselves with a surge in infections due to the excesses of gatherings in seaside places. But there must also be a healthy enthusiasm for adventure, knowledge and the desire to return to life. We all deserved it, so let’s try to imagine a little semi-serious guide for this long-awaited summer.

1. Let’s re-evaluate our beautiful Italy. There is no need to go far, you just need to want to discover beautiful things inside and outside of us, perhaps even very close. And our country is in great need of tourism and to restart the economy
2. We are looking for travel companions that are compatible with our needs, we choose less but better. There is a need for serenity and harmony. And anyway not to be too many …
3. We all want to dance, but before returning (especially for the younger ones) in the vortex of nights that never end, let’s remember how beautiful it is to dance in the moonlight in a few on the beach or in the countryside in the light of the sunset. We avoid excesses and try to appreciate little by little the pleasure of rediscovering the habits that make us feel good.
4. We have all been very still, sitting at the computer, ate and drank too much (since it was the only thing that could be done) and maybe we get to the costume fitting not exactly in great shape. We choose a holiday dedicated to wellness instead of extravagance. Our physique will thank us and we will return home never so beautiful.
5. Let’s not load up with suitcases exploding with clothes and accessories of all kinds. Let’s bring the essentials (a very important exercise for our minds), a few things that can be easily combined with each other, and rather allow ourselves the pleasure of buying something in the vacation spots we go to. We will feel more suited to the atmosphere of the place and will help the local economy with some purchases that will always remind us of that precise moment of the trip and therefore will remain special.
6. It’s time to make new acquaintances. We have been too long closed in the circle of family and work without being able to expand our world of relationships. For those who feel like it, this is the right opportunity to go on vacation courageously alone, not to lead the life of a hermit, but to be curious, interested and kind to others, to listen to those who are different from us and find out from other people. things we still don’t know. And, why not, to abandon ourselves to new loves …
7. We go on vacation to learn something: whether it’s trekking in the mountains, yoga on the board, surfing or a cooking class. Let’s take advantage of this moment to go home enriched by a new experience.
8. For me, holidays also mean reading good books. The days before departure I go wild to look for all the novels that have intrigued me. My advice is not to buy them on Amazon: let’s try to free ourselves from the slavery / convenience of buying online. Go to the bookstores in your cities, get advice from the booksellers. If everyone continues to order online from the giants of the network, those wonderful places that are bookstores will disappear and there will no longer be the pleasure (for me essential) of entering a place full of books and getting lost in leafing through the volumes, reading the plots and decide which story will keep me company on a trip.
9. We listen to good music. Not only the hits of the moment and the catchphrases that will accompany us everywhere (the joy of Jovanotti-Morandi is already inside our heads) but we discover different music, which takes us to other worlds, which accompanies us in the memories or in the emotions that touch us the heart.
10. We try to make this vacation unforgettable for ourselves. The journey must begin within us, not when we board a plane, train or ship, and it must be done to discover something that makes us feel good and possibly better than when we left.

11. Good summer everyone.

What does it mean to dress well? The fashion trends in the last hundred years have been so different, extreme and unsettling that it seems to be difficult to find a minimum common denominator that can unite them in the concept of elegance. Fashion has always been influenced by historical moments, thought, music or political struggles to launch trends that become uniform especially for young people, for those who ride and understand those thoughts.

A few examples? The break-up jeans worn by Elvis and James Dean in the 1950s that from America come to revolutionize post-war European respectability. In Europe these are the years of reconstruction and the economic miracle and if Paris dictates the law with the creations of Emilio Schuberth and Christian Dior, the fashion world begins to be invested by mass consumption, so much so that the Italian fashion industry was born in Florence with the first fashion show at Palazzo Pitti in 1952 with models that were not made to measure. If before dressing well meant being imprisoned in rigid bodices and petticoats, now clothes become easier and more wearable, until the arrival of the new Coco Chanel revolution that clears trousers and garçonne looks, removes collars from jackets and fills them with necklaces .

But the 60s had to arrive and the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to drastically reduce the hems of skirts thanks to Mary Quant’s stroke of genius and the unrepeatable atmospheres of swinging London, where true youth rebellions are born. Le seguaci di Twiggy, la prima magrissima top model universalmente nota, indossavano microgonne, stivaloni, i capelli a caschetto e le ciglia finte: eccentricità, rottura col passato, voglia di vivere, rock and roll.

In the 70s, on the other hand, the girls are tougher, they do not want to be noticed for their beauty and sex appeal but, in spite of appearance, they claim their intelligence and political commitment. These are the years of student uprisings, feminism, the refusal of war and peace and love: long skirts and hippy dresses, flared jeans and a low waist to show that belly they want to dispose of according to their will. These are the years of the sexual revolution and everything is possible. Even in this historical period, clothing, which today we would not define as respectable, served to make an entire generation of girls who had ideals of equality, emancipation and independence feel good.

That genius of Armani had to arrive in the 1980s to finally create a look for career women that did not make them feel less authoritative than men but equally feminine in the workplace: the trouser suits with unstructured jackets but with strong shoulders have redefined the style in a very specific historical moment, the one in which women began to weigh in social and public life. From then on, fashion followed the change of times by consecrating the great Italian brands as guidelines for style: the woman now had a thousand faces and could choose based on her personality, whether to be Mediterranean and sexy in Dolce and Gabbana, refined and very chic wearing Valentino, wild and animalier with Roberto Cavalli’s dresses, romantic at the Blumarine or intellectual as was designed by Miuccia Prada.

Women’s struggles in the 21st century are no longer just those of women: the new generations take to the streets today to recognize gender equality and to raise the awareness of the great of the Earth towards a problem that is global and affects everyone, attention to the planet. And fashion once again accompanies this social commitment with other changes. The collections of the last few seasons are increasingly unisex, supporting the right of everyone to be exactly as they feel, without more diktats and labels: masculine and feminine mix in a fluid fashion, without borders, free as it has never been before.

Dressing well today means more than ever feeling good in an image that is our calling card to the outside world, the dress is the first thing you see about us and everyone has the sacrosanct right to interpret it as they wish. But dressing well also means consciously wearing clothes that are durable, the result of a textile supply chain that respects the parameters of sustainability, a fashion that does not pollute the environment, that respects animals and plants.

Today dressing well is a common responsibility we have towards ourselves and our planet, not just a matter of aesthetic elegance.

Crida knows this and does it, not just in words. It is more difficult and more expensive to follow this commitment but it is essential that it be shared by businesses and consumers, especially the youngest. I dress well because I know that my dress is a flag, which tells not only my image but also the values I believe in.

Metti un po’ di musica leggera perché ho voglia di niente… anzi leggerissima! This song by Colapesce and Di Martino has become my mantra, during home aperitifs with my daughter, hinting at dance steps in the kitchen or humming out of tune in the car when I go to work, a real catchphrase present in my head morning and evening. What do I want? Of nothing … of lightness, we have already thought too long about painful and dramatic things now we want a pleasant nothing, which then means everything, or rather all those things, even very small ones, like having a cappuccino in a bar, which could not be more to do … For too many months we have dealt with only the basic needs of the children’s family home, moving from the pharmacy to the school to the supermarket for essential goods, socks and underwear for the children, overalls to stay at home, supplies for the weekend, now is the time to rekindle the desire for something that is not only light but also, why not, absolutely superfluous! We deserve it.

It’s May, spring now fills our days with scents of flowers and hot sun and we can’t help but feel that unbearable inebriation that comes from the desire to buy something new, but not because we really need it, just because we like it. I know, it is frivolity, but how long has it not happened to me to walk in the streets of the shops and enter to browse only for the pure pleasure of trying something in the dressing room and seeing how it is, to be amazed at having found something I had, without to know, an absolute necessity to feel good.

I believe that we women all agree on the therapeutic value of the purchase, but what to buy in this moment when we want everything and nothing? And above all for what? Events, parties, occasions are still lacking, but there is the possibility of going out to a restaurant for lunch, of venturing into a cinema, of inviting two friends over for dinner, always respecting curfews and distancing.

And that’s enough to make me want to be pretty, to wear something special. Enough shapeless dresses and slippers, spring this year must really make us flourish again. I confess that before (Covid) I used to buy things compulsively, perhaps low cost, to compensate for a pain, an effort, or to reward myself for a small success, only to find a quantity of things in the closet that I would no longer have. remitted, with the knowledge of having thrown away some money. Today, I don’t know about you, but I certainly conditioned by the long abstinence from shopping, I want to buy less and better, maybe one very special thing, which will remain in my wardrobe for my whole life (oh well maybe I exaggerate!) But that I will definitely not tire the next season. And when I locate it, I will pay close attention to the internal label that reveals the technical composition, to be sure that the fabric is really precious and worth the price I see on the tag. After that I will let myself be carried away by the joy of wearing a color to choose …

I have never seen such an explosion of bright colors in the windows and on the pages of newspapers, as if never before have women wanted to get noticed, to express even only with the color of clothing (yes, just like royalty) their emotions, the joy of being able to share pleasant moments with others after the long months of isolation. And then we fearlessly choose a bright, full, decisive color without fear that it will be … too much, and indeed we dare even more to combine it with another color block, as we had never done in life: yellow with green, red and l ‘blue, pink together with orange, yellow and peacock. Each of us has a favorite color that enhances our complexion and makes us feel beautiful, now is the time to find out. And to buy it.

Crida, you know, was born in February 2020 just on the eve of the epochal change that would have swept the world in this last year, presenting a small capsule of very brightly colored silk dresses. Even then we thought that there is nothing more beautiful, cheerful and full of energy than a colored garment made of natural fabric, and today the new spring-summer collection it enhances this trend even more and takes on a profound meaning not only of style but of the will to live, to enhance our beauty and femininity, to… start over.

Here is the lightness of which Colapesce and Di Martino sing, a need that we should not be ashamed of but that helps us to make ourselves feel ready to live with others and to express our tiring way with a new and colorful dress. revenge.

And now let’s start again: to dream, to make plans and above all to think positively because we are facing an epochal phase of our life. After a year of immobility and suffering we have the unique opportunity to change our lives for the better, but only if everyone, without exception, will work to do so: we are faced with an extraordinary opportunity to rebuild a different future for us and for our children without making the mistakes of the past anymore. How? Here are some examples. We forgot we were so vulnerable and instead pandemics happen, but the fight against Covid has created a network of knowledge that has led science to make progress in every field: a vaccine obtained in a few months, the collaboration of doctors from all over the world, the sharing of discoveries and the certainty of being globally connected. Research will heal us: do we want to invest more funds and aid so that we will never be caught unprepared again?

Always connected but isolated, closed in on themselves almost invisible and often depressed: adolescents have lost a piece of their youth, pouring their frailties onto their parents. But the difficulties in distance learning led to a revolution in education which, properly supported by technology, will allow for more personal relationships when you meet professors in the presence, with the aim of achieving tailor-made training for each one, but above all with the hope, this is the challenge, of being able to keep our graduates in Italy by offering them well-paid jobs instead of forcing them to go abroad to seek their fortune.

Another not indifferent challenge concerns women: the most penalized during the pandemic but also the toughest, those who all over the world – according to the data – have managed to start a new career thanks to the possibilities offered by the digital world: the number of companies born on the web has increased enormously and companies run by women have a better chance of success especially in online sales. Wouldn’t it be time to help women no longer have to choose between career children and not be humiliated by lower salaries, while still holding the same position as a man?

The pandemic is teaching us to live differently and has made it clear to us definitively that our well-being cannot be separated from that of our planet. Everyone, without exception, must adapt to this issue as the best professionals in many fields of the economy are doing, giving us an example, despite the difficulties they have had to endure: let’s think of restaurateurs and the challenge of the future in the kitchen, which is to demonstrate that you can eat well while respecting the environment and people. Or let’s think about the world of architecture and home and design: the goal from now on will be to create spaces and objects that last over time and to repair things to make them look as good as new. Creating products that have a long life and are recyclable is the way to sustainability.

Even fashion can be reborn and start again only if it is able to understand and combine the real needs of people and the environment. Today the big brands take the field to help the vaccination campaign by offering the availability of their spaces to doctors and nurses. Starting with Giorgio Armani who first declared exactly a year ago, we stop the fashion shows, we slow down the collections, we are producing too much and too quickly. Today he reaffirms with great wisdom that fashion must rediscover the heart, so it must do fewer things and do them better, to respect both the environment and the consumer who has become responsible and demanding. Never forget to read the labels inside the clothes you buy, this is the only way to find out what materials are used and how the garments are produced.

And you can choose consciously. For us at Crida, since the beginning of our adventure, which began shortly before the pandemic, this has always been an essential commitment: to use natural fabrics, to produce in Italy, to respect the environment and people. No economic activity today can fail in this commitment. Just as no company can ignore corporate social responsibility and must invest a small part of its profits in charitable activities.

Beauty will save us is not a cliché, it is instead a truth deeply linked to the special place where we are lucky enough to live, Italy. Our country bases its identity on art, culture and the extraordinary beauty of its landscape. This is our gold, our oil, the unique heritage we possess and on which we must focus in order to be reborn. We must protect it, preserve it and enhance it in order to return to our country, when the tourists finally return, the role of the cradle of art, history, archeology, but also of cinema and theater.

Let’s defend our rights and let’s do it with the tools that travel fast today, social networks. They saved us from the boredom of the many months closed at home, allowing us to stay connected and to dialogue with the world but we know that they can do much more and become very important tools to launch battles against inequalities and in favor of the weakest, but also to give young people opportunities to show their talents and to create free and correct information.

So what does it take to win the challenge of change? Commitment first of all, no one can be called out, the union will certainly be the push for a new future, but two other ingredients are also needed that are independent of the field of professional competence and concern the nature of each of us: industriousness and solidarity. These are the characteristics that I found and admired in the people of my city, Bergamo, the place in the world that was most affected by Covid (yes … more than Wuhan in China where it all started) and which produced the fundamental turning point. Never give up and be disheartened even in the face of the worst calamities, roll up your sleeves and move on. And help each other. Only in this way Bergamo, after having mourned its 6,000 dead, today has already laid the foundations for its rebirth, looking to the future, so much so that in 2023 it was proclaimed capital of culture together with Brescia. I am sure that Italy can do the same.

He has all the potential and above all, I’m sure, he has a big heart.

What fashion will be that of next fall / winter? The Milanese fashion week has just closed its doors to pass the baton to Paris but without the audience of journalists, buyers, influencers and testimonials who accompanied and enriched these events full of glamor, beauty and work of course. We all hope that these are the latest digital fashion shows and that we can go back to looking at fashion closely, to touch and try on clothes, to present the collections in front of a real and not virtual audience.

After a year spent at home, the designers’ challenge was to propose a fashion that can reconcile dreams with reality. We all need dreams, but reality still scares us and forces us to limit contacts, to look at the world from a screen, to live with the handbrake on, to no longer feel like eccentric looks, accustomed by now to a routine that makes us less protagonists.

In fact, we saw few oddities in the collections that were presented: dresses, coats, practical suits, for morning and evening. The revisited silhouettes are increasingly large and voluminous, practically extra-sized. Neutral and sober colors, which often evoke retro atmospheres, but always with a pinch of light, brilliance and glamor that cannot be missing. Lots of military green, all the shades of Nicole Kidman-style burgundy of The Undoing and unusual combinations such as peacock blue and leaf green, camel and ocher, as well as brown that is once again overbearing and chic. And some fluorescent touches that make us happy.

The one proposed for next season is ultimately an essential and contemporary fashion, more stylish than crazy. It is the mood of the moment, but it is also (and this makes us very happy) the basic idea of the Crida project, born a few months before Covid changed the habits of our life, with the firm belief that elegance does not consist in seasonal trends but in the beauty of the fabrics, in the classicism of the shapes, in the fluidity of the volumes, in the small details. Beauty is the key, says Armani who once again does a job of subtraction and minimalism to his new collection, achieving a perfect balance of style and rigor. Indeed, beautiful.

Beyond King Giorgio who is not discussed, I tell you which seasonal trends I liked the most: the return of the dress and a soft and non-aggressive femininity, and here at Crida we can say that we have almost anticipated the trend: our goal is to make women fall in love with clothes again and next autumn we will see a lot of them, easy to wear, never excessive, of very refined fabrics and colors. I also find the decidedly masculine suit super chic, perhaps softened by a belt over the jacket, but with a decidedly mannish style, like the one proposed by Genny.

The Max Mara world, which has always been in my strings and in my heart, this year celebrates the 70th anniversary of the birth of the brand by reaffirming the cornerstones of its style: clean lines, camel colors, enveloping coats and a hint of British in the moccasins and in the checks of the skirts. The trend to follow is that of the total look in neutral colors and oversized lines, as in the aviator jacket worn over the tailored suit. I loved the Alberta Ferretti fashion show, the lady of chiffon, who proposed a triumph of Italian tailoring with dresses and outerwear with essential lines but with very refined workmanship. The explosion of the gold-colored final dresses is a hymn to optimism and glamor that we hope will return. Speaking of extreme luxury, the return of furs (and what furs …!) From Fendi does not go unnoticed, where Kim Jones presented a woman who casually flaunts an excess to which we are really no longer used.

The flou coat by Prada will certainly be on trend next autumn, as well as the optical patterns in contrast with black. Even Prada tells with its clothes the change we are going through but with perhaps excessive forcing. Very little femininity (the wet effect hairstyle penalizes even the most fascinating models) and in my opinion also little elegance. All very conceptual.

A return to the joie de vivre instead is the collection of N 21 for winter which tells of a sensuality typical of the Italian bourgeoisie, revealed by transparencies, lace, exposed underwear. Her pencil skirts with large mohair sweaters are a perfect synthesis of what we women would like today: warmth, protection but also a little sex appeal.

What, then, are women dreaming of now? I was very curious about an investigation by Io Donna (which I always read from top to bottom) on women’s desires for the next season: they say no to heel 12 (but yes to the slipper) and yes to the dress for spring that makes them feel feminine. They would like to buy a new bag or, among beauty products, a face cream. Between shopping for stores and online, they have no doubts, they prefer the former, perhaps with friends. They would like “light” clothing to go out, which is not just a matter of grams, but of dreams. Another shared desire is the possibility of inviting friends home, or the dream of enjoying a weekend in a special place as a reward at the end of this tiring journey.

Concrete, active, dreamers but super efficient, women have faced this terrible year with courage, patience and effort and today they are ready to leave again. Also from a fashion that makes them feel good, beautiful and feminine, but always ready to walk fast towards the goal and to do a thousand things at the same time. We have met many women in recent weeks in our pop-up store in Rinascente (where we will remain until March 15), and we had exactly this impression: the women have their feet on the ground and their gaze turned up towards the sky. And in the end, the trend we like best is this one, in which we all recognize ourselves.

We leave with enthusiasm. We try? We have to try.

Twelve months ago we were overwhelmed by one of the worst nightmares of our life, a tragedy that affected the whole world, destroying millions of lives and dramatically affecting economic and social life. A year later we all feel a lot of fatigue, maybe we still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but little by little we are raising our heads.

And I am sure that if Italy succeeds, it will be thanks not to the politics or to those aid we look forward to from Europe, but to the incredible strength and courage of those entrepreneurs who lead our economy made up of small and medium-sized companies. , of those people who have rolled up their sleeves and started over, because in this the Italians are the best of all: in the ability to react and recover from tragedies. In addition to creating style and elegance.

I talk about fashion because it is the sector I know best. He suffered, he stopped, he understood that he had to change and now he comes to the starting line with a new energy: collections full of colors (yes, even for men!), Clothes that are not minimal at all and two watchwords fundamentals, sustainability and optimism.

At Crida, you know, we never stopped, we continued to work, we sold our spring-summer collection all over Italy that you will now find in the best stores, we understood that we were on the right path by focusing immediately on quality and on made in Italy, suggesting to buy less and buy better, producing everything on the territory to defend the supply chain.

Now we want to face this spring thinking positively, not only because February is a crucial month for sales campaigns, but because we are convinced that the desire to dress will return (in reality it never went away to me …), the desire to buy something new for a special event, be it a wedding or a birthday party, but also, why not, a dinner invitation from someone special. February 14 is the day of lovers, and never as now we need love and sharing: to help you choose the look we have prepared a special selection dedicated to Valentine’s Day, with our unmistakable red dresses, modern and super feminine, perfect to strike those in front of us in the heart.

And then I want to announce with a pinch of pride that in February Crida will be the protagonist of an important event: we have been chosen by Rinascente Milano to occupy the most visible and important space of their store, as a new brand, with the possibility of selling our collection. spring summer for three weeks during the fashion week, from 23 February to 15 March.

For me and Daniela it is a great satisfaction after such a tiring year, it is a sign of encouragement to continue in this direction, but above all it is the opportunity of great visibility that we were waiting for, the possibility of presenting our idea of elegance, for a woman who wants to be reborn.

We believe that every dress and every color we wear has a meaning and a strong symbolic power: it is no coincidence that there are garments that have become the sign of a historical period or a philosophy of life, I am thinking of the Coco Chanel suits that freed women from corsets, to the miniskirt by Mary Quant, an emblem of contestation and sexual revolution or to the jackets of a genius like Giorgio Armani who helped career women in the 80s to be credible, comfortable and stylish. But what do we need today? At this moment I feel the need for lightness, color, a refined elegance that does not detract from the daily commitment of work, family and children but which allows each of us to say, looking in the mirror: I feel beautiful.

This is the world that we have imagined and that we have created with our dresses of natural silk, fine cotton and pure linen, in a rainbow of brilliant shades. Every woman has an infinity of colors within her, and after such dark months, the time has come to find them again.

We are ready for this special spring and we will be happy to meet those of you who want to visit us at Rinascente, where we are organizing our space as welcoming and elegant as our clothes. Like the Crida style, which simply means Cristina and Daniela, two women like you, who love fashion and want to start living again, but to live in color.