Cristina Parodi told Fanpage.it about the darkest weeks of Bergamo, the city that adopted her and that was hit hardest by the Coronavirus emergency, about her husband Giorgio Gori and that job that is not left outside the front door. About her stop in the world of TV and that dream of fashion from which she now wants to start again.

There is a hint of sadness and pain in her voice when she talks about Bergamo, which has now become her city, and the deafening silence that has filled its streets and squares for too many weeks. Cristina Parodi, journalist, presenter, writer and now involved in the fashion world with the brand Crida, told Fanpage.it how she experienced the Coronavirus emergency, what her fears were and how she faced them, all together with her husband Giorgio Gori, mayor of the Italian city most affected by the virus. “It’s the first time I’ve seen my city truly on its knees. They’ve been very difficult months.”

«Working with Cesvi helped me keep my mind busy»

Cristina, who has been involved with the Cesvi, an NGO that operates worldwide for cooperation and development, has focused in this period on a fundraiser for the city, thanks to which 5 million euros have been raised, useful for the purchase of medical materials necessary to face the emergency. “My mind was busy and engaged in a job that I felt I had to do and wanted to do. It helped me get through this period in a more constructive way. Now, fortunately, we all see the light a little more. The people of Bergamo are very willing, hard-working, productive people who don’t stop at anything. Just as they were silent during these months of pain, now they’ve all started working, the municipality first, and obviously the road is uphill for everyone. But if there are tough people who are capable of getting back up, it’s precisely those of this city, so I’ve learned to know them”.

With her husband Giorgio Gori “a profound and beautiful experience”

The whole family, however, had to deal not only with fears for the pandemic but also with Giorgio Gori’s public role. “Giorgio continued to work all the time, going to the town hall, going out. We were afraid for him, we were afraid for us who were staying at home. But Giorgio is a person who stops at nothing and it’s as if he had convinced himself that he was invincible.” Being the mayor of the city most tormented by this emergency was not easy, it’s a job that you don’t leave outside the front door. “Being next to Giorgio is always a profound and beautiful experience, because he is a man who works hard and dedicates himself with incredible selflessness to everything he does, and he does it with a truly tireless passion. Also in this case I tried to stay close to him and comfort him as I could and give him concrete help with the work I did with Cesvi, which in any case channeled into the city and the administration. It was tiring, but it was nice to live this moment with him too, certainly the most difficult to face for everyone and for a mayor in general”.

Those painful images of the tanks that will go down in history

The images of the 70 military vehicles that carried the coffins of Covid victims out of Bergamo will remain etched in our memories and certainly in history books. There, perhaps, we all truly understood how helpless and absolutely defenseless we can be in the face of a virus that has prevented many from even giving their loved ones a dignified burial. “I cried, like everyone else. Like all the people of Bergamo believe they did in silence in their homes, without showing too much pain. In Bergamo, people are like that, they are ashamed and a little shy about their pain and in an unreal silence were those weeks, the darkest. There were only the bells tolling for the dead, the sound of the ambulances. But not a sound could be heard, there was not a person around. Here in Bergamo, those who were not there perhaps cannot understand the heaviness of this silence, of this immobility. There were no songs in the streets or on the balconies, as many other cities have done, but rightly so, to comfort each other, to find a little serenity. Here, every family in Bergamo, every person I know had a pain, a person who passed away, a family member in hospital, a friend who was fighting against this disease. Those were truly difficult weeks.”.

Crida, that dream come true

Now, however, Italy is slowly starting up again. Phase 2 has sanctioned the reopening of some businesses, while waiting for the rest to be able to unlock. And the time has come for Cristina Parodi to start thinking again about the newborn Crida brand, hers and that of her friend Daniela Palazzi from Bergamo. «This project was born as a dream that I shared and have shared with Daniela for many years, one of the most naturally elegant women I know. Last summer I had a season freer from television commitments, we told ourselves that if we didn’t do it right away we wouldn’t do it anymore. It seemed right to us that even at 50 years old, two women could make their dream come true. We started working in September, researching fabrics, workers, manufacturing and in December we had our first collection ready, a small capsule. We were very proud of what we had done, then obviously at the beginning of March, when we were supposed to start the most important month also for orders and to get the clothes into the stores, everything stopped. And like the entire fashion world, we brand new freshmen suffered a setback and now we have an uphill road. Having said that, we are from Bergamo and therefore we won’t stop, also because we have cultivated this dream for a long time. We certainly didn’t choose the best time to start, but this couldn’t have been foreseen».

“Fashion must slow down”

Clothes designed for all women, timeless, made with natural and sustainable Italian fabrics. These are the characteristics of the Crida brand and that respond to the need, felt now more than ever, for a less consumerist fashion. “Fashion, like our entire country, will have to change. In our opinion, it will have to go in a direction of simplicity, as that genius Giorgio Armani immediately said. Fashion must loosen up, it must become more human, it must resume the rhythm of the seasons. These are the ideas we had in mind when we thought of Crida clothes. They are not a product to be consumed quickly, showy, to be worn only twice because after a while you get bored of them. The line is designed for all women like us, who work, do a thousand things, who have small children to take to school, or big children like mine who are already traveling around the world – she says laughing – who work all day and in the evening find themselves having an aperitif. They are clothes for women who love to travel and want to move around and not have to carry a thousand things to match”.

«They offered me a program, I refused»

«They offered me a program, I refused»
After all, fashion has always been part of her professional path, as a journalist at Tg5 she dealt with it for many years and now she has decided to change roles, putting herself on the other side. «I am not a woman obsessed with work and appearance. I did this job out of passion. I was on air daily for decades, but I never had a nightmare or anxiety if I didn’t do it anymore. Now I choose the things I like and I can also allow myself to do other things, I’m a curious person, I write books. They offered me a program on TV8, but I refused because in this period I wanted to give space to this project that I like so much, made by the two of us. And then I matured and developed an increasingly close collaboration with Cesvi, I became the director of their magazine. These are two things that I deal with full time and that I like a lot».

Love for Made in Italy

And 10% of sales will be donated to Cesvi. The proceeds will go to support a project aimed at helping the elderly who need support, care, meals and social assistance services at home. The brand also wants to be a hymn to Made in Italy. “In unsuspecting times, we named each of our clothes after a city that inspired us. Florence, Taormina, Bari, Rome, Positano. We like the idea of telling them also through the images of our beautiful Italy. We need to support our tourism and we made this choice because we are convinced that Italian fashion is special and unique in the world”.

Source: https://bit.ly/2ZiD4T2

The power of friendship, the strength of a dream, a passion turned into reality. In one word CRIDA, an acronym for Cristina Parodi and Daniela Palazzi, two friends who have always shared a love for fashion. A proudly Italian project, a declaration of love for their country and its excellence through stories of quality fabrics and exquisite craftsmanship. The result is a line inspired by the elegance of Italian women, in which even the names of the garment models celebrate Italy in a tour from north to south with the names of the cities that represent the emblem of the beauty of the Bel Paese throughout the world, such as Milan, Florence, Capri or Taormina.

CRIDA’s identity is thus rooted in Italian heritage, but it is the different backgrounds of the two founders that give a unique twist to the brand: they share their experience as mothers and workers and their home in Bergamo; for the rest, Cristina is a globetrotting journalist, while Daniela is a stylist and PR lover of design. The relational soul of the former merges with the creative spirit of the latter, with decidedly original results.

A brand for women created by women, inspired by that pleasant sensation of feeling at ease with a piece of clothing. CRIDA is the perfect synthesis of femininity and comfort, versatility and grace. A discreet elegance and a whispered seduction narrated through impeccably made clothes, which caress the body hinting at the shapes but without flaunting them. The challenge, in fact, was precisely that of creating garments with a soft fit, suitable for dressing different body types. It is no coincidence that Cristina Parodi is a size 42, Daniela Palazzi oscillates between 38 and 40, and yet they have managed to create models that fit both in the same size.

CRIDA’s proposals for its debut in the fashion system materialize in a Spring Summer 2020 capsule collection of ten dresses and two outerwear pieces with an effortless chic edge. Dresses with an excellent fit that rest on the hips without tightening, characterized by the absence of zippers, by wide impalpable midi or floor-length skirts and wide sleeves with important cuffs. Versatile garments also in the context of use, thanks to the use of precious fabrics such as chiffon and silk: CRIDA dresses are both perfect for daywear and declined for the evening, with a few but right accessories. In the collection there is also space for cotton pieces: this is the case of the canvas circle skirts, the cotton textured chemisiers or the striped poplin shirts.

The color palette is varied: from neutrals like the timeless cream, to vibrant silk nuances like forest green, Tiffany blue, tobacco, vitamin yellow and red.

Beyond fashion and the magical world of fabrics, CRIDA is an invitation to believe in your dreams, because it is never too late to make them come true. Word of Cristina and Daniela!

by Letizia Bellitti
Source: https://bit.ly/3dndVu5

“Being from Bergamo means being concrete and not being afraid of sacrifices, hard work, fatigue. Everyone is now ready to roll up their sleeves and start again. And we at Crida will do the same”. Cristina Parodi and Daniela Palazzi want to send a positive message. With CRIDA they have bet on femininity and on their Bergamo.

Given your background, Cristina, why did you decide to join the CRIDA project?

C.P: I have always been passionate about fashion. I followed and studied it even better as a journalist when I was at TG5 and for some time together with Daniela Palazzi the idea of creating a line of clothes only was born. After having produced several for us and our friends (Daniela is the true creative and stylist), we thought it wasn’t too late to follow our dreams. So we took the plunge.

CRIDA is the acronym for Daniela and Cristina. Inspiration, drawing, expression the first. Communication, word and relationship the second. Where does the project come from?

C.P: The project was born from the idea of making women wear clothes again. Which must be comfortable and chic, feminine and elegant, carefully made and with natural fabrics. Able to stay in the closet for much more than one season.

CRIDA is relatively young. What does it mean for a reality like yours, to live the current scenario?

C.P: Crida was born in December with a first collection of silk and cotton dresses that had excellent feedback from the press and buyers. The COVID emergency blocked everything, halved orders and like the entire fashion world we also stopped. For a small new company like ours it is a hard blow but now we are ready to start again to deliver in stores and through our e-commerce

How have you and are you dealing with the emergency situation we are forced to live?

C.P: The pandemic that has overwhelmed us has not only disrupted our lives but has certainly changed the rules of the world that we will find once the isolation is over. The fashion industry will also have to adapt to new needs and perhaps slow down a bit the frenetic pace and super fast consumption. I believe that now more than ever clothing companies must offer consumers concrete values and emotions, as well as extreme trends and frivolities.

Will consumer needs change? If so, how?

C.P: The needs of consumers of super luxury goods may not change, but those of others will. I believe that purchases will be made with more awareness, people will look for items that can stay in the closet for more than one season, they will look for quality over quantity. Crida was born with this philosophy: to offer women well-made clothes at a reasonable price, to combine Italian sartorial elegance with style that lasts over time.

And the purchasing methods?

C.P: For us, stores are fundamental. Since it is our first collection, we need customers to discover us in the boutique, go and try on the clothes to verify their excellent fit and caress our fabrics, notice the sartorial details. Then the online will be fundamental to reach more people abroad too. I like to think that we will be able to do small presentation events in the stores that believe in us to be able to better explain what is behind a collection and let customers live experiences of comparison and information as well as purchase.

What are the future strategies that the brand wants to approach?

C.P: Our future strategy is to be faithful to the idea of elegance that we wanted to create. We will continue to buy Italian fabrics from our companies, to use manufacturing laboratories in our area between Bergamo and Milan. We want to be totally sustainable from an environmental point of view and guarantee the highest quality. We want our customers to recognize in us the Italian style that the whole world envies us.

What does it mean to be from Bergamo and live in one of the hardest hit areas? Are your garments produced in the area?

C.P: We are proudly from Bergamo. And being from Bergamo means being concrete, not being afraid of sacrifices, hard work, fatigue. And the period that is now beginning will be really hard for us as for all the thousands of companies in the area. We have had so many deaths and too much pain but everyone is now ready to roll up their sleeves and start again. And we at Crida will do it too. Here we say “mola mia” which means “you never give up”. Now that we have built our little dream we will not let it vanish.

by Sara Cinchetti

Source: https://bit.ly/3cvbViq

Are you wondering what Crida Milano clothes are like? Alessia Marcuzzi answers!

Let’s start with two beautiful and much-loved women of Italian television, Alessia Marcuzzi and Cristina Parodi, for once one in the new role of model and the other as a stylist for a brand new brand that we will hear a lot about. Yes, because all you have to do is open the profile Instagram by Alessia Marcuzzi to come across a delightful photograph in which the presenter is wearing a dress designed by Crida Milano, the fashion brand launched by Cristina Parodi together with her interior designer friend Daniela Palazzi (Cri + Da ça va san dire, ndr.) paired with a pair of pointed décolletées. Alessia chose a dress from the Spring Summer 2020 capsule collection, the Vieste canvas light blue and khaki, consisting of a long khaki full skirt and a long-sleeved light blue striped shirt with gathered shoulders. It is a delightful chemisier dress worth 695 euros that is a hymn to the (beautiful) dresses that we will see during Spring 2020. Let’s take a closer look at this look by the volcanic Alessia Marcuzzi.

Alessia Marcuzzi’s chemisier dress is the right choice with which to face Spring 2020. A passion, that for chemisier dresses, that we admired during Milan Fashion Week and that we will continue to confirm as the beautiful season makes its way into our daily lives. Just like this one by Crida Milano that focuses on the elegance and refinement of Made in Italy with 100% natural fabrics and a particular design that reinterprets the skirt + shirt combo in a very comfortable dress. A collection by the new duo Cristina Parodi and Daniela Palazzi that reinvents the concept of the chemisier dress designed for elegant women who do not want to give up on fully enhancing their silhouette. This time too, Alessia Marcuzzi, our style icon, was right by focusing on her friend Cristina Parodi and on one of the most iconic dresses of the next season. Alessia Marcuzzi with a dress by Cristina Parodi and the doubts about the dresses to wear this Spring 2020 vanish. Forever.

by Redazione Digital
Source: https://bit.ly/2MqlwMY