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.

Let’s start from the end and from a wish I have in my strong and powerful heart: happy 2021 to all of you who follow us, this terrible 2020 is over and it will take very little for next year to be better.

But since we at Crida (i.e. Daniela and I) are tenacious and positive women, we also want to suggest, perhaps in a somewhat unexpected way, not to throw away everything that has been in this 2020 and to make an effort to find and preserve what is good, even if in a very small part, we have lived.

Women, I am convinced, are the ones who in these twelve months have had to bear the heaviest load of fatigue and stress. They took care of their work (often adapting it to smart working) but also of the family, of the house, jumping through hoops to make ends meet.

They have looked after sick relatives, helped their children in distance learning, scared or intractable (depending on age), they often comforted worried husbands with the natural predisposition to organize everything, but also to welcome and reassure without ever having time for themselves.

A few days before Christmas on Crida’s instagram page we received a message from a doctor from the Niguarda hospital. In congratulating us on our clothes in a very nice way he wrote to us it would be very nice if we too, who have been locked up in the hospital for a year and do not have time even to buy essential things, could wear them …

We can only imagine what this period was like for those who work every day in a hospital, the fatigue of continuous work and the weight of the physical and psychological suffering that a person carries inside having to deal with fear, illness and often death.

Giorgia’s dream (this is the name of the doctor who contacted us) seemed so right and possible, as if it were a small symbolic ransom for a category of women who really did and continues to do a lot for all of us.

We inquired about how many doctors and nurses there are in that department, about sizes and tastes, and we arrived two days before Christmas, loaded with packages to be delivered and put under the tree. Why am I telling you this? Because for me and Daniela it was a beautiful moment, a greater satisfaction than any editorial in the newspapers.

Seeing the smiles of these women and their joy in receiving our gifts, looking at the photos they sent us, beautiful with our models, next to the Christmas tree, was for us a more intense emotion than any other gift.

I would not like to forget this day because it gave a profound and important meaning to the work we do, it was a symbolic and spontaneous gesture to say thank you to all the women who work in healthcare. At Crida, we make clothes, we don’t save lives, but we work in a sector, that of fashion, which is fundamental for the Italian economy and which has been heavily affected by the pandemic.

Daniela and I have thought about this project for a long time and we debuted on the market exactly in January 2020, in the most disastrous and difficult year for this sector since the war. They have been very complicated months, a swing of emotions, from the encouraging ones for the positive feedback to our brand, to the negative ones in the face of the block suffered by the market due to the lockdown.

We have never, not even for a moment, thought of giving up. We gritted our teeth, worked every day of the year perhaps with recklessness but with a determination that in the end rewarded us.

2020 is over and we survived, even if with difficulty, and it is no small thing for a brand that was just born, still little known, in a world where competition is fierce.

Thanks to all of you who have followed, encouraged, bought and appreciated us. For us every single order online or from the stores has been precious and has helped us to move forward and to continue to believe in Made in Italy, in the quality and sustainability of our garments. To see a glimmer of light.

The new spring summer collection is about to arrive which is made up of wonderful colors, totally Italian silks, cottons and linens, clothes that make you want to go out, to feel beautiful, to be elegant and special even in everyday life.

Creating these dresses in the darkest period of our life was like betting on optimism. This is the challenge we all face today.

So in these first days of the new year we try to contrast the painful memories with a list of joys, even small ones, that have helped us. If we don’t start with ourselves to look positively at the future, the world will be more difficult to change.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Cristina and Daniela, from Crida

It will be a strange Christmas what awaits us. By now we know. But I believe that there will still be something positive in these holidays that we will certainly not forget. Meanwhile, the fact that 2020 is about to end is a relief for everyone, I can already imagine the texts of the messages that will run on social networks on New Year’s Eve, releasing the most unbridled and irreverent creativity regarding the terrible year we have passed. After so much pain and fear, perhaps we will be able to smile again (and thank goodness we are still allowed to do this) but we will also need to think about how to face the new year to avoid being overwhelmed again by the deadly and dreaded wave of return. So: prudence, respect for others, protection and a bit of optimism that doesn’t hurt. Who knows what we will think in ten years from seeing the photos of 2020 with masked faces and the distance that prevents hugs? “Cursed 2020” or “fuck 2020”, to be even more explicit, will become a way of saying that our children will carry around and tell their children…

Will we be wearing the exaggerated evening dresses on the 31st? Probably not because crowded parties and dinners will still be banned to protect our health. There will be no wild dances until dawn, sequins and high heels, but nothing prevents us from welcoming the new year with sobriety but not without elegance. Isn’t it nice to prepare yourself carefully, choose a special dress, carefully put on make-up and prepare the table with the best service and then sit down with your loved ones and have a Christmas or New Year dinner with traditional dishes? I’ll tell you something: for years before 31st I went to buy myself an absolutely crazy, glittering, gold and silver piece (dress or accessory), to be able to wear something new and decidedly flashy, if for a dinner in mountain hut or a New Year’s Eve to celebrate in a club with friends. Things that I would never have put back on other occasions, some, I admit, totally useless. Today I don’t do it anymore, and not just because we can’t travel or dance … I believe that if there is something positive that Covid has taught us it is the ability to appreciate and exploit more what we have and not to shop without sense. Buy less and buy better, above all choosing based on the quality of the fabric, the sustainability of the materials, looking at and understanding the substance not just the shape. Mind you, we are women and fashion lovers, so impulse buying to gratify us will always be a joy, but I am convinced that these difficult times are driving us to change our attitude towards fast fashion and focus on the value of the garments.

Do you know what the circular economy is? It is an economic model in which production and consumption scraps and waste are reintegrated into the production cycle to reduce the impact on the environment. It is the opposite of the linear economy based on the typical “extract, produce, use and throw” scheme. To make this happen, companies must be the first to convert to this economic logic, but also that consumers know how to recognize materials that are difficult to recycle such as synthetic ones and want to choose natural ones. We at Crida did it immediately, well before Covid and all that this global tragedy forced us to reflect on.

We continue to do so convinced that we are on the right path, trying to create a fashion that is not only beautiful and attractive but also ethical, sustainable, environmentally friendly. We will continue to work with companies in our area, to help Cesvi, an NGO from Bergamo that is doing so much to help the weakest and people in difficulty.

And then the wish for everyone, friends and friends who follow us, is to be able to grasp the truest and most profound aspect of this Christmas. Love for oneself that cannot ignore the good for others, for the planet we live on, for important values: family, friends, solidarity, kindness, the joy of giving, even if it’s just a hug or a smile.

We believe in it and we want to share with you the desire to restart and rebuild, on the rubble and pain of this cursed 2020, a world that is better.

Cristina e Daniela, from Crida

Here we go again. I would like to write about an Italy that after having suffered so much in spring, after having made enormous sacrifices, starts again to conquer the markets thanks to its uniqueness in terms of fashion creativity style and instead, after a September full of hope and an October full of fear , our country now finds itself fighting the same terrible enemy, covid 19, without adequate weapons, as if the pandemic at the beginning of the year had not taught us anything, as if this second wave had not been widely foreseen.
I would like to talk about fashion, about Crida, of the evolution of our brand, so young and therefore more fragile in the face of the storm, but I cannot help but think of the consequences that the new DPCM it will have on the entire supply chain of the sector with the closures of clothing stores (as well as bars, restaurants, gyms and beauty centers etc…).

I have been an entrepreneur for too little time to allow myself to make predictions or give advice, but I have always been a journalist and the questions I ask myself right now are not answered. Wouldn’t prevention have been better than cure? Why haven’t we at least learned to track infections (which from the very beginning appeared essential to circumscribe the virus)? Why wasn’t there a supply of flu vaccines knowing how valuable they would be in the fall? What about rapid tests? not received … Wouldn’t it have been better to intervene immediately in the most affected centers with severe measures and leave other areas of Italy free to move forward?
There has been no talk of anything else on TV and in newspapers for weeks now, but why do the numbers that are given relating to infections, sick people and patients in intensive care change according to the network, program and newspaper? It cannot be said that what is happening has been clearly explained nor that there has been a plan, a preventive strategy to deal with it in the best possible way.
The only certainty at the moment is this: it will be a difficult November the one just started e we have to face it with responsibility and the prudence that current conditions impose on us but let’s hold on to a shred of optimism, to be able to hope that December and Christmas will give us again the joy of a family hug, a dinner out, an open theater or a shop where to buy something that makes us feel special.

We believe in it, so much so that in the Crida fall winter collection, in addition to silk and cashmere dresses, we have prepared a special edition of our Firenzeevening model with a precious, very light fabric that shines with light and that will be in stores for the parties.
Fashion, remember it well, is not frivolity, glamor and vanity, but represents one of the most important slices of the gross domestic product of our country.
It is a reality and a fundamental wealth of Italy with a precious supply chain of small, medium and large companies that employ thousands of people.
Just think that all the most important luxury brands, including foreign ones, come to Italy to make their garments using the skill of our tailors and craftsmen who represent the world excellence in this sector. Maybe it’s professionalism that remains hidden, of which you hear less, but the perfection and value of a dress also depend on the type of embroidery that is done by hand, from the perfect hemline or from the special button that the companies of Grumello (famous for this sector) manage to create from the material obtained from fishermen’s nets.
This is the magic and enchantment of fashion that we like, the ingenious and sustainable one, which does not damage the environment and makes Italy great in the world.

The hope is that each of these companies can hold on and continue to produce. Let clothing stores withstand this second shock and receive just compensation. And that Italian fashion, of which we represent only a small but proud sparkle, begins to shine again.
Word of CRIDA.