It's a milestone year for the Italian company BasicNet, which in 2025 is going to orchestrate celebrations for a slew of its brands, including Superga. The latter is marking the 100th anniversary of the signature 2750 vulcanized rubber-soled tennis shoe, which has transcended its sports-leaning ethos to become synonymous with the nonchalant spirit...

In the early 1980s Diego and his brother Andrea Della Valle were living in New York when they took a fated trip to Maine. There, they saw the work jackets worn by the local fire department and it ignited a spark, pun intended. The distinctive industrial metal fastenings caught the eye of the owners of Italy’s Tod’s Group. Enlisting their quintessen...

Italian textile manufacturer Microtex Composites Inc. announced plans to open its first U.S. facility, a prepreg factory, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The state’s Department of Economic & Community Development (TNECD) disclosed that the company’s $3.8 million investment would create 26 jobs.  Neither Microtex Composites nor TNECD revealed an expected...

Among the Founding Members of the Associazione marchi Storici d'Italia, an icon of one of the four A's of Made in Italy Clothing-Fashion, is the well-known shirting company Inghirami. Founded in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, in 1949 from the idea of lawyer Fabio Inghirami to install about 20 Singer sewing machines in a small home workshop to make tailored...

Rosita Missoni passed away on January 2, 2025, at her legendary residence in Sumirago. Born Nov. 20, 1931, in Golasecca, in the province of Varese, Rosita Jelmini Missoni was the last heir of a family of Lombard textile artisans: the Torrani family. Her life knew a turning point thanks to her meeting Ottavio Missoni, a young athlete at the 1948 Lon...

The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) will once again sponsor a curated selection of some of Italy’s best menswear and men’s accessories designers at the Chicago Collective: Men’s, from February 1-4, 2025, at The Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois. Sartorial tradition and the world’s most sophisticated manufacturing techniques combine to lead US retail...

An Italian manufacturer has announced they are building their first U.S. plant in Hixson.The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced Tuesday morning that Microtex Industries is setting up shop here. Microtex creates structural composites for customers in the automotive and aerospace industries, which essentially are the...

Nearly a year on from Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta's purchase of the River Oaks District for $450 million, he's making good on his promise to ramp up the number of retailers in the luxury mall. Most notably, luxury Italian menswear brand Stefano Ricci has opened in the mixed-use, 300,000-square-foot retail center at 4444 Westheimer. The cent...

Varallo, Piedmont, is serene. In the heart of the Valsesia Valley, nearly at the border of Switzerland, the town reveals itself in quiet layers: narrow alleys that wind between centuries-old houses, the faint scent of woodsmoke coming from the snow mountain peaks beyond, and the Sacro Monte, a UNESCO World Heritage site, perched on a ridge above. ...

On a recent trip to Rome, I left the major tourist city behind to spend an afternoon in Solomeo, a small village in the Province of Perugia. The stunning village, with cobblestone streets and beautiful views of the rolling hills, looked like something straight out of a fairytale. One of the most fascinating things I learned, though, was that Solome...